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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN PROJECT PLANNING
AND MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LECTURE ONE: INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENT
1
...
2 Objectives
1
...
4 Principles of environmental management
1
...
6 Ecology and ecosystems- food chain and webs and energy transfer
...
7 Environmental resources and classification- essential consideration in
planning and management
...
8 Summary
1
...
1 Introduction
2
...
3 Meaning of EIA
2
...
5 Environment Impact Assessment procedures in Kenya
2
...

2
...
8 Summary
2
...
1 Introduction
3
...
3 Meaning of environmental development
3
...
5 Integrating environmental aspects into development
3
...
1 Waste management

environmental

3
...
2 Pollution
3
...
3 Land degradation/ Drought and desertification
3
...
7 Summary
3
...
1 Introduction
4
...
3 Environmental education in perspective
...
4 Technology and the environmental education
4
...
6 Summary
4
...
1 Introduction
5
...
3 Meaning
5
...
5 Effects of population growth on the environment
5
...
7 Summary
5
...
1 Introduction
6
...
3 Meaning of environmental conservation
6
...
5 Global dimensions of environmental conservation
6
...
7 Challenges in environmental conservation
6
...
8 References
LECTURE SEVEN: ENERGY CONSERVATION AND ENVIRONMENT
7
...
2 Objectives
7
...
4 Classification of Energy Sources
7
...
6 Conservation of Energy
7
...
8 References
LECTURE EIGHT: CLIMATE CHANGE AND OZONE LOSS
8
...
2 Objectives
8
...
3
...
3
...
4 The Stratospheric Ozone Layer
8
...
1 The threat to the Ozone Layer
8
...
2 Causes of Ozone Depletion
8
...
3 Effects of Ozone Depletion

...
On Climate Change

...
5 Global Initiative to Conserve the Ozone Layer and Reduce Global Warming
8
...
7 References
LECTURE

NINE:

MANAGEMENT

AND

CONSERVATION

RESORUCES
9
...
2 Objectives
9
...
3
...
3
...
4 Principals of Conserving Natural Resources
9
...
5
...
6 Policies of Resource Management and Conservation
9
...
8 Summary
9
...
This
course has been prepared to introduce you to the environmental issues in project planning and
management
...
These topics have been dealt with in
different lectures of this module starting from lecture one upto lecture nine
...
Take away assignments ( Term papers)
2
...
Final Examinations ( Three hours)
Take away and timed tests constitute course work which comes to thirty percent (30 %) of the
total marks, while the final examination constitutes seventy percent (70 %) of the total marks
...
Explain the meaning of Environment, ecology and
Ecosystem as applied in project planning and management
...
Describe the role of Environmental Impact Assessment within projects in
Kenya
...
Underline the historical development of environmental education
4
...

5
...


LECTURE ONE: MEANING AND PRINCIPLES OF
ENVIRONMENT

Lecture Outline
LECTURE ONE: INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENT
1
...
2 Objectives
1
...
4 Principles of environmental management
1
...
6 Ecology and ecosystems- food chain and webs and energy transfer
...
7 Environmental resources and their classifications- essential consideration in environmental
planning and management
...
8 Summary
1
...
1 Introduction
This lecture has been designed to equip you with the necessary skills on the environmental things
that surround you and on how to manage them well
...
2 Objectives
At the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
1
...
Understand

the

basic

principles

of

environmental

management
...
Explain the relationship between environment and sustainable
development
4
...
Identify environmental resources within Kenya and their
classification

1
...
The subject of environmental management
frequently arouses suspicion among politicians and economists especially in the developing
countries and Kenya is no exception
...
The politicians on the other hand
believe that this is about denying them their political space in the community and hence tend to
oppose it unnecessarily
...
This is indented make all people including you to
appreciate the need for supporting various efforts being made to make our environment safer and
friendly without compromising development and growth
...
Munyua and J
...
Things as used here means both the living
and non living things which drives or influences the way living things are formed or are modified
or are developed in their process of growth
...

The word environment can therefore be defined in terms of the following
...
By monitoring and managing our business‘ impact and
being aware of our environmental responsibilities, we can ensure that our projects are
environmentally friendly while reaping the added value from the business
...

By introducing sound environmental management practices and reducing our environmental
impact overall, our projects can profit from cost savings through efficiency or productivity gains
...


Receiving assistance and grants from the government

2
...


Receiving recognition through numerous environmental awards

4
...


Improving workplace safety through reduced use of industrial chemicals and reduced
waste
...


Reducing accidents and wastes due to mistakes or errors
...
4 Environmental Management Principles
The following principles provide a basis for organizations pursuing environmentally responsible
operations
...

1
...
1 Environmental protection
Project managers should protect the environment by trying to reduce any adverse impact of their
project‘s activities and products on the atmosphere, water, land and among all the living
organisms to a level where the cost to society do not out way the benefits
...
4
...
The lead on environmental management should come from the top
...

There should be a well-defined management structure
...
Where necessary,
specialist advisors should be employed to assist line management in discharging their
responsibilities
...


The following are some of the procedures of achieving the above:
A
...


In order to do this it may be necessary to conduct an initial environmental review of
the company's operations to establish exactly where the company stands with
respect

to

environmental risks
...
Ultimately the success or failure of an environmental
policy

will

depend

on

management's

ability to spell out specific objectives for employees
...


Set clear, measurable and realistic goals for minimizing the impact on the
environment
...


C

Integrate environmental decision making in all aspects of business planning and
operations
...
4
...
Where
standards and regulations do not exist, companies should establish standards to
restrict adverse environmental impact
...




Measure and review environmental performance by conducting regular audits to
evaluate progress against set standards and goals, compliance with laws and
regulations and implementation of these principles
...
4
...

Ensure that customers, distributors, suppliers and the public have information to enable them
to transport, store, recycle and dispose of products to minimize environmental impact
...

Participate in educational initiatives and programs to raise environmental awareness and to
develop

an

understanding

of the contribution which industry can make to minimize environmental impact
...
4
...

Formulate, discuss and agree objectives with various individuals and operations involved
...

1
...
6 Products and Processes
Evaluate relevant project activities scientifically, including the setting of the production
facilities, for their impact on the environment, and implement reasonable countermeasures
...
To plan all aspects of the production

process carefully with regard to the choice of raw materials, their durability, ease of repair and
the recycling of parts
...

Reduce pollution levels by measures such as good housekeeping, substitution of materials,
modifications of product design and process, and resource recovery
...
4
...
Emergency/Contingency Plans
Prepare and test emergency response plans for dealing with environmentally damaging
incidents and to respond to such incidents by protecting the health of employees, the
public and the environment
...

1
...
8
...

1
...
9
...

1
...
10
...

Take business decisions related to operations, products and services bearing in mind the
balanced environmental and economic and social development needs of the community
...

Activity 1
...
5 Environment and Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims at meeting human needs while
preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for
future generations
...
‘ (Reclift, M
...
As early as the 1970s "sustainability" was employed
to describe an economy in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems
...

The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into three constituent parts:
environmental

sustainability,

sustainability
...
Environmental Sustainability

economic

sustainability

and

socio-political

Environmental sustainability is the process of making sure that current processes of interaction
with the environment are pursued with the idea of keeping the environment as pristine as
naturally possible based on ideal-seeking behavior
...
Sustainability requires that human activity only uses
nature's resources at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally
...
Theoretically, the
long-term result of environmental degradation is the inability to sustain human life
...

B
...
Conservation is one of several policy goals, Technological,
administrative and economic tools are employed to gradually shift the economic development
path towards one, which maintains the regenerative capacity of renewable resources and
switches from the use of non-renewable to renewable resources (Rees, 1990)
...
Sustainable Development Mode
Under this mode, environmental conservation and/or preservation become the sole basis for
defining a criterion with which to judge developmental policy
...
This mode envisages fundamental changes to the status quo through a
shift in the way economic progress is pursued
...

By shifting the development path, it is argued that it will be possible to leave intact (or indeed
increase) the stock of assets (both natural and man-made) available for future generations
...
Individual preferences can operate to determine the specific package of resources
employed for the moment and those left as future assets
...
g
...

In the context of resource allocation, equity and provision of welfare services are seen as central
to the sustainability debate
...
Poverty and environmental degradation
have becomes part of worsening aspect of under-development
...
This in tern increase rural poverty as the
cycle continues
...
5
...
Such a society recognizes the limits of its sustainable growth
by seeking the best means to achieve the desired growth while avoiding aimless
growth
...
5
...
Pollution was then mainly a concern for
the Western World (pollution in the developing countries had generally not reached alarming
level)
...
There
was also concern that pollution would become a ;third world problem too, if developing
countries followed the pattern of development that the West had taken and which had least
regard for the environmental protection
...
5
...
Thus eco-development means an
ecologically sound development that achieves harmony (instead of creating conflict) between
man and nature or between the society and the physical environment
...
Ignacy sachs, a proponent of econ-development, defined it as:
―An approach to development aimed at harmonizing social and economic objectives with
ecologically sound management, in spirit of solidarity with future generations, based on the
principle of self-reliance, Satisfaction of basic needs, a new symbiosis of man and earth; another
kind of qualitative growth, not zero growth, not negative growth‖
...
1984)
Eco-development is a process of development that ensures that ecological concerns are complied
for during developmental efforts
...
Ecodevelopment has following aspects:
1
...

2
...

3
...

4
...


The concept of sustainability was first brought to public attention through a publication on
ecology – ―World Conservation Strategy,‖ (1980), which defined sustainability mainly in terms
of three practices:


Maintaining essential ecological processes and life-supporting systems



Preserving genetic diversity;



Sustainable use of species and ecosystems
...
5
...
The Key outcome of the summit was Agenda 21 which addressed sustainable
development at both local and international levels
...
N George
...
The protocol was hailed as an
agenda for the 21‖ century and as a timely means for the provision of development at the same
time helping controlling, protecting and conserving natural environment
...


It also acknowledged the fact that

sustainable development would fail if policy-makers continually imposed decisions from
above instead of enlisting the interest and participation of all the people
...

1
...
5 Requirements for Sustainable Development
Sustainable development requires a formal system that secures effective people participation in
decision-making
...
Other requirements of sustainable
development include
...
Environmental Considerations
One basic element of sustainable development is the entrenchment of environmental
considerations in policy formulation
...
It is today common knowledge that sustainable
development demands the integration of these policies both in theory and in practice
...

Environmental concerns have been a major factor in the formulation of the concept of
sustainable development
...
In developing nations however, environmental
issues are more basic
...


These are problems that

characterize under-development
...

B
...
Thus, it emphasizes
not only on the creation of wealth along with resource conservation, but also on the fair NorthSouth distribution of resources
...
Fair distribution of
resources is also expected within communities in the same region or countries
...
e
...

C
...
This means
that terms like ―economic welfare‖ when used within the content of sustainable development
would be inclusive of non-financial components
...
g
...

D
...


These needs include biological (e
...
food and sleep), cultural (e
...


entertainment and music), material (e
...
money and bicycles) and in and non-material (e
...

psychological) Needs of course are complex and particular to different persons
...

E
...
These
people are given all the necessary direction and momentum
...

F
...
At individual
level, the term implies that one is able and feels proudly able to bear one‘s own burden without
being helplessly dependent on outside support
...
Self-reliance
refers to independence achieved through rational use or allocation of nation‘s natural and human
resources in the process of sustainable development
...
Such a life-style has to be free from any pressure or interference from vested groups
such as big political powers, political groupings and multinationals corporations
...

1
...
An ecosystem is a complex set of relationships among living resources, habitats
and residents of a region
...
(Munyua J and J
Onyari 1996)
Within ecosystems there are flows of energy and matter
...
The
energy flows through the system and is lost mainly as heat
...

Each ecosystem has an input of materials from the atmosphere and other ecosystems
...
We all depend on
the environment for our survival and comfort
...
Therefore we need to maintain this relationship
for development to take place
...
2
Using local examples, explain the main factors which may
influence sustainable development in Kenya
...
6
...
Individual food chains do not, occur in
isolation
...
The concept of ecology and ecosystems is a critical
one for project management in that the activities of project programs should not be allowed to
interfere or disturb the relationship between organisms in our environment
...
7 Environmental Resources and their Classifications
Kenya has diverse resources which need to be protected through various agencies and laws
...
These resources range from the land, mineral resources to forest and wildlife
...
These
resources are classified as follows
...
7
...
It provides
primary human requirements such as food, fiber and fuel, while supplying raw materials for
manufacturing, as well as providing space for human habitation and recreation
...
Some of these
demands often conflicts in terms of land use
...
7
...
They conserve biological diversity, water and soil and
are a major habitat for wildlife
...

1
...
3 Wildlife Resources
Wildlife constitutes an important national resource with substantial socio-economic, cultural,
scientific and environmental values and should be properly managed
...
7
...

1
...
5 Rangeland Resource
Much of Kenya‘s land is classified as rangelands which are characterized by scanty and
unreliable rainfall
...

1
...
6 Other resources
The other resources Kenya has been endowed with include
A
...


Mineral resources

C
...


Fisheries and marine resources

E
...


Atmospheric resources

Activity 1
...


1
...
We
have also identified the basic environmental principles to include
environment protection, environment performance assessment, and
communication and employee commitment
...
The concepts of ecology and ecosystems
are most useful in discussion of relationships among and living
resources, habitats and residents of a region
...
These resources include Land,
minerals, Forest and Wildlife
...
1 Introduction
2
...
3 Meaning of EIA
2
...
5 Environment Impact Assessment procedures in Kenya
2
...

2
...
8 Summary
2
...
1 Introduction
In lecture one, we discussed the Meaning of environment, principles governing the management
of environment, environment and sustainable development, Ecology and Ecosystems and
Environmental Resources and their classification
...
Our focus will be on the Meaning of EIA, role of EIA,
EIA guidelines in Kenya and challenges involved in EIA
...
2 Objectives
At the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
6
...
Explain the role of EIA in good environmental practice in Kenya
3
...


4
...


Explain the Environmental laws: International, Kenyan
perspectives

6
...
3 Meaning of Environmental Impact Assessment
Environmental assessment is a procedure that ensures that the environmental implications of
projects are taken into account before the project decisions are made
...
The International
Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) defines an environmental impact assessment as
"the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and
other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and
commitments made
2
...
The main roles centre on the
following
...
4
...

The country has three different faces: firstly, it has unique nature values, not only on a national
but also on an international scale
...
The land area is been developed rapidly by private
developers, which, in turn means there is a need to control and monitor the whole process of
development by land to ensure equitable and controlled development
...

2
...
2 Documentation
The Environmental Impact Statement deals with a planning dilemma; how to assess the impacts
of a plan, which does not include detailed design drawings and therefore no detailed predictions
of impacts, can be made
...
In the assessment, impacts are regarded as warning signs, and are merely transformed
into potential mitigation measures than described as direct or indirect impacts
...
But a lot of responsibility falls to the Proponent, who will
carry on with detailed design activities such as forestry road upgrading and building, and
drainage of forests and fields
...
Here pros and cons of the project are in terms of classical economics
...
The Nature Conservation Tradition has its own
well known principles
...


2
...
3 Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening
In spite of the fact that the authors of EIA may not be objective evaluators, they try to find out
the key issues for others to learn from
...
The Environmental Authorities need good
practice examples of Strategic Environmental Assessment in Spatial Planning
...

2
...
4 General Discussion
Environmental Impact Assessment procedures cannot solve the problems of Kenya in a rapidly
changing economic, social, environmental, and land use framework but it provides a flat form of
evaluating the developmental policies of the country against those of other countries
...
It may also appear that re-organization benefits are relatively small compared
against the risk of losing the traditional cultural setting
...


Take Note
Environmental impact assessments are sometimes controversial
...
5

Environmental Impact Assessment procedures for Projects in Kenya
In Kenya the procedures for environmental impact assessments are largely governed by
the Environmental Management and Coordination Act (1999), and other consideration
given due attention in the project selection, sitting and design
...

Based on the empirical evidence collected in developing countries and various other parts
of the world, it has been found out that one way of approaching EIA cost effectively is to
familiarize the person who makes the decision with the steps involved in the EIA, the
importance of timing each step, and the resources required in the project design and
implementation
...
5
...
The activities involved at this stage
include identifying a decision maker or makers; selecting a co-coordinating person;
deciding on work allocation; writing description of proposed action and reviewing the
existing legislation
...
This is because in Kenya
and indeed in many developed and developing countries, there is normally conflict in
terms of who is the person with the authority over a certain project or programme
...
Therefore it is very helpful
from the onset to state clearly which person, or persons, or group will have the
responsibility of making the final decisions on a particular project or a programme
...
The work of the co-coordinator is more or less
like the supervisor on the ground who will ensure that the study proceeds along the lines
set out by the scoping exercise and that the outcome of the study will be in the form that
is useful to the decision maker
...

In some rare cases the decision maker himself carries the role of the coordinator
...
This involves allocation of
responsibilities to be carried out and by whom
...
For example, in the U
...
A, the practice is that the developer conducts the
assessment while the Environment Protection Agency serves in a review and ―watch dog‖
capacity
...

In text Question
What is the current practice in Kenya as regards work
allocation?

Whatever model of allocation of work is to be followed the primary thing here is that allocation
of work should be done early in the life of the project
...
It involves coming up with a write up which should be brief (not more than ten
pages) that specifies exactly the action that the study is intended to solve; the list of constraints to
be encountered and the proposed action to be taken
...

The last of the preliminary activities is the review of the all existing laws, regulations and
ordinances that would apply to the proposed action
...

Take Note
The list of preliminary activities listed above is not
exhaustive
...
5
...
It consists
of two parts or processes
...
Once this information
is obtained, the list is compiled and then the list is carefully examined and a manageable number
of key impacts are selected for study
...
Another
area where identification is done is on the legislative or regulatory requirements
...
In some countries like in the U
...
A, there are strict laws that require
scoping to be done at early stages of the EIA and also in coordination with interested parties,
agencies and the public
...
The most
ideal source for developing a checklist of impacts is by synthesis from other EIAs on similar
actions
...

Impact identification is normally done under scoping
...


2
...
3 Baseline Study
The baseline study is the establishment of what existed in the area prior to an action
...
However baseline study would be required in order to measure the
baseline levels of those environmental parameters that the most important impacts will affect
...

The activities required under baseline survey are field work and a review of the existing
documents
...
It is also at this stage that technical specialists are required to put their inputs into
the environmental impact assessment
...
2
...


Impact evaluation (Quantification) and Predication

After identifying the impacts of a proposed project, the next logical step will be to know or
measure the degree or extend of that impact
...
For example, if the impact identified for people living in a village nearby to a proposed
factory was noise, impact evaluation should be able to measure the extent of effects that will
occur as a result of the changes in the noise levels in that particular village
...
Then a series of calculations can be done to determine the sound output of the
factory
...

A point to be noted here is that for some impacts, there are predictive techniques e
...
air
pollutant dispersion models which enable prediction of future conditions of environmental
parameters to be ascertained, but for other impacts it may be necessary to rely on the ―best‖
judgment of the experts based on their knowledge and experience
...
2
...


Mitigation Measures

Once the impacts have been identified and quantified, some may be found to be significant and
adverse
...
It
is often not possible to eradicate an adverse environmental effect but it is feasible to reduce the
intensity
...


Examples of mitigation measures are installing of dust collectors, sludge ponds, noise mufflers,
and crop rotation
...
Proper assessment should be done to determine the
extent to which each mitigation measure might reduce
the impacts, or prevent them altogether
...
2
...
At this stage all information gathered from all other steps are made
available
...
The intended
output of this step is a series of recommendations from which the decision-maker will choose a
course of action
...

2
...
7 Documentation and Communication of Impact Information
This is perhaps the most important steps in Environmental impact assessment
...
The report should be prepared in a
manner that it can be understood by non-expert decision makers and members of the public if
given access
...


2
...
8 Decision Making
Once a report has been prepared, it is then forwarded to a person who is going to make a
decision
...
Once the decision maker goes through the report he is expected to make
any of the following decisions:


The project proceeds



The project proceeds with the amendments, and



The project is cancelled with amendment
Take Note
The primary objective of undertaking an EIA is to help the
decision maker to make a sound decision on the project
...

2
...
9
...
Post audits are
conducted to determine how close those predictions were to the reality
...
Therefore in
most cases it is done by another team which is set up later after the EIA process has been
completed
...
6

Environmental laws: International, Kenyan perspectives

Now that you are familiar with the steps followed while undertaking an environmental impact
assessment, let us now look at the legal framework for the environment
...
In this respect we may focus on one or two countries in order to have a clear
understanding of the international aspect
...
6
...

The Act consolidates the various legislations that touched on the environment mainly the
constitution of Kenya; land tenure and land use legislation; forestry legislation; wildlife
legislation; water laws and agricultural legislation
...
The functions of the
National Environment Management Authority are as follows:


Monitor the state of environment



Advise the government on issues of policy legislation and coordinating touching on the
environment



Harmonizing and integrating environmental concerns during development planning



Ensuring of compliance with environmental laws, regulations, impact assessments and
other standards on environment



Promote environmental education and awareness
Take Note
NEMA has the legal authority to exercise general supervision
and coordination over all environmental policies

The Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act (EMCA) require that all key projects,
proposed or on-going, should carry out environmental impact assessments
...


2
...
2 International Environmental Laws
Internationally, increased public awareness over the damage done to the natural environment has
resulted into international environmental agreements
...

What is important to note here is that in most countries where laws indented to protect the
environment are in operation, environmental assessment legislation is incorporated within the
main environmental legislation or enacted as a separate act
...

The National Environmental Policy Act (1969) is considered one of the most comprehensive and
all encompassing environmental legislation in the U
...
A and many other parts of the world
...


2
...
Challenges in Assessing Environmental Impacts
Environmental impact assessments are measures or estimates of consequences of management
decisions on one or more environmental indicators
...


In this section we shift from describing environmental laws to discussing some of the challenges
and potential difficulties that may be encountered while faced with developing systems to assess
these impacts
...
The issues we discuss are organized into three sections:

the

identification and integration of environmental indicators; the bias against future impacts or,
alternatively, our greater ease and ability in measuring and assessing current and tangible
impacts; and the reality of data limitations, which constrain the development of assessment
models in covering the breadth of environmental parameters that are being measured
...
7
...
To use the example of pesticide toxicity,
there is no single species or group of biota that is most sensitive to all pesticides and thus useful
as a surrogate for all others in toxicity testing
...
Scientists are therefore faced with the
need to test and evaluate impacts on various groups of biota, and then integrate the results in
order to create a composite assessment of environmental impacts of a pest control method or
other management strategy
...

2
...
2 The challenge of quantification
Another challenge to creating a composite assessment of environmental impacts of proposed
projects or programs is finding a meaningful common currency to describe different types of
impacts
...
Ongoing research in several disciplines (and inter-disciplines)

is aimed at devising means of valuing environmental and other non-market goods; much of this
work falls under the rubric of 'resource ecological economics' (Daly 1991; Daly and Townsend
1993; Daly and Cobb 1994; Guinee and Heijungs 1995; Krishnan, Harris and Goodwin 1995)
...
7
...
The issues that tend to concern us most are those that occur in our immediate
space and time frame
...
For example, a project to test
ecotoxicity of pesticides emphasizes their short-term lethality rather than their chronic and
cumulative impacts
...
Long-term and cumulative impacts are
more difficult to comprehend and quantify than short-term impacts and there are less data
generally available
...

A second manner in which we can be biased against the future as compared to the present is by
not considering impacts associated with future events (Garetz 1993) such as leaking of
improperly stored pesticides in the future
...
For example, the Superfund Program and Hazardous Waste Program were
established primarily on the basis of future rather than current risks
...
7
...
Data can be divided into different classes
...
Data which describe intrinsic
properties of a system are unlikely to change with time
...
Other data are valid for short time periods, such as farm management
information, which therefore have to be collected frequently
...
For these reasons it is
difficult to define a minimum data set for the proposed projects which will be widely applicable
or remain constant for a long time
...
7

Summary

In this lecture two we started the lecture by explaining the
meaning of environmental impact assessment as

a procedure

that ensures that the environmental implications of projects are
taken into account before the project decisions are made
...

We looked at the role of environmental impact assessment and
said that environmental impact assessment helps in the proper
planning, monitoring and management of projects in Kenya in
order to minimize their negative impact to the community
...
We also
noted that there is no universal procedure to be followed for
each project because the application of EIA varies with the
types of projects or project area/region and there is no one
―right‖ way given the comprehensive variety of issues that must
be considered
...
We
also looked at the international perspective of environmental and

noted that in most countries where laws indented to protect the
environment are in operation, environmental assessment
legislation is incorporated within the main environmental
legislation or enacted as a separate act
...
We stated that these
challenges are experienced when choosing environmental
indicators and deciding how to integrate them; the challenge of
quantifying the impacts; the bias against future as compared to
present impacts and challenges related to data collection
...
8

References
1
...
et‘al (2004), Environmental Impact
Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment:
Towards an Intergraded Approach
...
Agarwala, S
...
),(1993), Environmental Impact
Assessment for Developing Countries
3
...
"Several dates in
the 1980s"
...
Government of Kenya, Nairobi
...
World

Bank,

Environment

Department
...


"Environmental Assessment Sourcebook"
...


Technical

Papers

139

and

140
...
C
...
S
...

5
...
(2007), Environmental Planning and
Management-Towards better Environmental Law,
Management, Evaluation and Impact Assessment,
Applied Research and Training Services
...
1 Introduction
3
...
3 Meaning of environmental and development
3
...
5 Integrating environmental issues into development
3
...
1 Waste management
3
...
2 Pollution
3
...
3 Land degradation/ Drought and desertification
3
...
7 Summary
3
...
1 Introduction
In lecture two above we introduced to Environmental Impact Assessment where we covered
Meaning of EIA, Role of EIA in good environmental practice in Kenya, Environment Impact

Assessment procedures in Kenya, Environmental laws: International, Kenyan perspectives and
the Challenges of EIA
...

3
...
Explain the meaning of environmental development
...
Analyze the relationship between development and
environment
...
Discuss

the

various

techniques

of

integrating

environmental issues into development
...
Explain the impact of development on the environment
...
3 Meaning of Environmental Development
Environment and Development is concerned with all aspects of the developmental activities
which impacts on our environment
...
Its coverage includes
interactions among society ( environment) and developmental advancements, development;
technical, economic, ethical and philosophical aspects and the environment, practical
implementation; development and application of indicators of sustainability; development,
verification, implementation and monitoring of policies for sustainable development; sustainable
use of land, water, energy and biological resources in development; impacts of agriculture and
forestry activities on soil and aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity, and much more
...
Scientists are focusing on technological advancements that are socially equitable,
economically viable and more environmentally sound
...
In order to
fully utilize the potentials of technological advancement, a high level of familiarity with the
relationship between development and the environment is important
...
For example, technological
advances have definitely benefited us in form of more of material benefits and conveniences like
sufficient food, clothing, housing, health care
...
People need to work less hard, and don't
need to expose themselves to many perils that their ancestors hundreds or thousands of years
back were
...
One are of loss has been the degradation of our environment
...
Also
we have damaged the natural beauty, serenity, and healthy environment of many places by
industrial activity, urbanization, and mass invasion by tourists of places of natural beauty
...
But perhaps a lot more was the result of human callousness
and excessive greed for profit rather than unavoidable outcome of technological development
...
This phenomenon, which is the result of excessive release of
some gases such as carbon dioxide and ozone in atmosphere due to industrial activity, is slowly
increasing the average temperature around the globe
...
6 degrees, and is increasing further rapidly
...
This means that bringing back the
temperature to the original levels will not be able to reverse some of the effects of global
warming
...
This process is irreversible after certain level of temperature is
reached
...
This area is home for about 15 percent of the
world population today
...
4 The Relationship between Environment and Development
The relationship between the natural environment and development is very critical especially as
it touches on how development affects the environment
...
The manner and conditions in which these factors are related
can be determined within the context of the level development attained within specific period of
time
...
It should be re-emphasized that the
environmental issues are of great importance to the development process of a particular region or
place and should therefore be considered as an integral aspect of development
...
Indeed,
the compelling urgency of the development agenda has been widely recognized in the last decade
by the international community and has more recently been endorsed in the proposals set out by
the United Nations for the second Development Decade
...
These problems are themselves
very largely the outcome of a high level of development
...
These disruptions have

attained such proportions, that in many communities, they already constitute serious hazards to
human health and well- being
...


Take Note
The problems experienced by the industrially advanced countries
have, to a large extent, brought about the current concern with
environmental issues in developing countries
...
They have an obvious and vital stake in them in so far as these problems have an
impact on the global environment and on the socio-economic relations between developing and
developed countries
...
These problems are in fact
already emerging with increasing severity in most developing societies
...

As mentioned earlier, the major environmental problems of developing countries are essentially
of a different kind
...


In other words, they are problems, of both rural and urban

poverty
...
These are problems, no less greater than those of industrial
pollution, that clamour for attention in the context of the concern for human environment
...

It is evident that, in large measure, the kind of environmental problems that are of importance in
developing countries are those that should be overcome in the process of development itself
...
Badly planned and unregulated development can have a similar result
in the developing countries
...
In their context, development becomes essentially a
cure for major environmental problems
...
Although it may be
argued that the concern with human environment in developing countries can only reinforce the
commitment to development, it should also serve, to provide new dimensions to the concept of
development itself
...

In the past, there has been a tendency to equate the development goal with the more narrowly
conceived objective of economic growth as measured by the rise in gross national product
...
Indeed, in many countries, high growth rates have been accompanied by increasing
unemployment, rising disparities in incomes between groups and regions and the deterioration of
social and cultural conditions
...
The recognition of
environmental issues in developing counties is an aspect of this broadening of the development
concept
...

Whilst the environmental problems of developing countries are in large measure those that have
arisen from the lack of development, it is true that problems arising out of the process of
development are equally in evidence in these countries to the extent that the safety of the
environment depends on their relative levels of development
...
The
process of agricultural growth and transformation, for example, will involve the construction of
reservoirs and irrigation systems, the clearing of forests, the use of fertilizers and pesticides and
the establishment of new roads and communities
...


These processes will certainly have

Similarly, industrialization will result in the release of pollutants that will react on the
environment in a number of ways
...
In addition, with the urgent need for the rural areas to sustain a growing population,
the problem of the rural environment assumes a new significance
...
But with the lack of relevant educative information and resolute
action, they will tend to attain formidable dimensions in the decades ahead
...
However, it
suffices to point out at this juncture that in some fields environmental issues open up new
positives for developing countries
...

Among such structural changes, we can mention first of all the switch in balance between natural
and synthetic products and the re-opening of certain markets to the export of natural products
...
The desire to redress some of the past damage to the environment and to
minimize the environmental cost of future development will, in most cases, represent a new
claim on productive resources and an additional element in the cost of production some of this
burden may be reduced in the future as science and technology respond to the needs of
environmental management
...
There are misgivings in the developing countries that,

given their peripheral role in the international economy, they may not be able to take full
advantage of opportunities arising from environmental control, while at the same time they may
have to bear a disproportional part of the extra burden which such control would entail
...
On the other hand, nations
should endeavour to rectify the inefficient allocation of productive resources arising from the
indiscriminate protection of agriculture and industry
...

3
...
While industrial development almost inevitably creates more
employment in any region, the possibilities of adverse effects on the environment also increases
if these adverse effects are not properly contained or reduced to minimum
...
This requires a
proper machinery of integrating environmental issues into developmental efforts as examples
given below indicates
...
5
...
As a society we manage to produce a vast
amount of materials that are just thrown away, waste management is the collection of these
materials in order to recycle them and as a result decrease their effects on our health, our
surroundings and the environment
...
The management of waste is not only the responsibility of governments and the
manufacturer, but also an individual‘s duty
...


Kenya is one of the countries that is giving attention and priority to how it handles its waste, and
this has resulted in the emergence of companies offering environmental services for resource
recovery and recycling
...

There are several resource recovery systems in place and facilities that have been developed to
deal with these issues
...
Automated and manual methods are used to sort materials
from construction sites, such as brick, tiles and concrete and after being sorted are re-used for
road base and construction materials
...
Bioreactor landfills are deployed to generate green energy through the
capturing of biogas from municipal waste
...


We can all help out when it comes to waste management and recycling products
...
It is each person‘s responsibility to do what they can to conserve resources,
reduce landfill volumes and produce new materials using less energy
...
Deciding to recycle is a simple step
and surprisingly easy to start
...

3
...
2 Environment Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability,
disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i
...
physical systems or living organisms
...


Pollutants, the elements of pollution, can be foreign substances or energies, or

naturally

occurring; when naturally occurring, they are considered contaminants when they exceed natural
levels
...
The fast pace
of industrialization, galloping demand for energy and reckless exploitation of natural resources
during the last century have been mainly responsible for aggravating the problem of
environmental pollution, which is now set to pose serious threat to biodiversity and ecosystem
processes
...
5
...
Land degradation is defined as the long-term
loss of ecosystem function and productivity caused by disturbances from which the land cannot
recover unaided (Bai and others 2008)
...

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD), of which Kenya is a signatory,
recognizes land degradation as a global development and environment issue
...
The CCD defines desertification as land degradation in
arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas (also referred to as drylands) resulting from various
factors, including climatic variations and human activities
...
In turn, unsustainable land use is driving land degradation
...

Unsustainable human activities that take place in already fragile areas and that are aggravated by
natural disturbance such as drought or flooding lead to land degradation and desertification
...
These conditions are exacerbated
by frequent drought and the influx of people from the high potential areas into the drylands
...

Land degradation is increasing Studies in 1997 showed that 64 per cent of Kenya‘s land area was
potentially subject to moderate desertification and about 23 per cent were vulnerable to severe to
very severe desertification
...
3 per cent suffered from severe land
degradation, 52 per cent to moderate land degradation, and 33 per cent faced slight vulnerability
to degradation
...
In the early 2000s, approximately 30 per cent of Kenya was affected
by very severe to severe land degradation (UNEP 2002) and an estimated 12 million people, or a
third of the Kenya‘s population, depended directly on land that is being degraded (Bai and others
2008)
...

The impacts of land degradation and desertification include a reduction in crop and pasture
productivity and fuel-wood and non-timber forest products, which are closely linked to poverty
and food insecurity
...
Land degradation
manifests itself in many forms; among them are soil erosion, increased sediment loading of water
bodies (such as Lake Olbollosat, the Winam Gulf, and Lake Baringo, all of which feature in
satellite images in this Atlas), loss of soil fertility, salinity, reduced ground cover, and the
reduced carrying capacity of pastures (as in Amboseli National Park, for example)
...
1
1
...
Using examples, give reasons why land degradation is a more
serious problem in Kenya
...
5 Impact of Development on the Environment
The socio-cultural roots of our present environmental crisis lie in the paradigms of scientific
materialism and economical determinism, which fail to recognize the physical limits imposed by
ecological systems on economic activity
...
The emergence of the concept of sustainable development
in recent years has brought in the general realization that societal perceptions must shift towards
ecological determinism so as to achieve qualitative growth with the limits of ecosystem carrying
capacity
...
Environmental movement, for all purpose, had its beginning in 1972,
the year of the Stockholm Conference
...
It has also been felt that the
effects of pollution in all its aspects may not remain limited to the boundaries of developed and
developing nations
...
In Kenya for
example, our environmental thinking took its cue from the developed countries and perceived the
preservation of the threatened species both flora and fauna
...
The need to preserve the country‘s production base
and to combat industrial pollution and insanitation in the interest of public health has been felt
...

Environmental degradation affects developing countries more fundamentally, than it does the
developed world
...
As such, effective measures are called for at all levels of production, to combat pollution
and to save the environment, from degradation
...
Though agriculture is still the main-stay of the population, a sizeable section of
population is engaged in manufacturing and allied activities which affect agriculture activities
and hence poverty and hanger
...
The population around the
industrial complexes is exposed to the hazards of industrial pollution thereby, influencing their
quality of life
...
It is, therefore, of paramount importance, to
start commercial utilization of industrial waste (eg
...
Industries should be compelled to do recycling of their waste, on a regular basis,
through legislation and its strict enforcement by all countries
...
This can be
accomplished through regular monitoring by a competent and high powered group
...
It must be obvious that unlimited population growth and permanent
development, using the limited resources available therefore cannot continue forever
...
Biologists have a concept that we would be
well advised to pay attention to
...
We know that, in the animal kingdom, unlimited population growth ultimately leads

to the destruction of the habitat of the species and as a result there is a drastic check in the
growth rate, or occasionally the species will be wiped out from the face of the earth
...
Scientifically, no less than five major
extinctions have been fully documented
...
In none was mankind involved, for the simple reason that we did not exist yet
...

At present, we may witness the beginning of another period of mass extinction of species, but
this time one of the main actors in the drama is man, who through his actions or sometimes his
lack of actions is endangering the future of the world and its inhabitants
...
Similarly, water pollution as a result of
indiscriminate dumping on land, the coastal areas and even the high seas is also a known fact
...
The quality of life both in the developed and the
developing countries is negatively affected by this deterioration of man‘s habitat
...

Mankind strives to improve its lot by improving its quality of life
...
A very simple definition of development is the totality of activities that ensures
that the basic needs for human existence are met for an ever-increasing number of the
population
...
Food includes all kinds of nutrition, and selfesteem also includes aspirations to better one self, through education, occupation and selfrealization
...

Unfortunately, it seems that, at this particular time in the history of our planet, this aspiration is
not only far from being achieved in the near future, in also poses serious threats to the continued
existence of life on planet earth
...
Agriculture has affected the distribution of plant
and animal species, both the domesticated and wild ones alike
...
Unknown numbers of animal and plant species have, in the past,
been forced into extinction by human actions
...

At present however, we may be at the brink of a global catastrophe, caused by the actions of both
the developed and the developing nations
...

Industrialization and energy use through burning of fossil fuels, use of nuclear energy, using
chemicals in the production of amenities that should make life easier, all have negative side
effects on our environment
...
Now
there is evidence that even normal, one would say natural processes, have negative effects on the
environment because of the large number of emitters involved, and because, apparently, the
balance within the bio-sphere is already disturbed
...

Recently, the world population has been alerted to two dangers
...
The second danger is the
depletion of the ozone layer, which offers protection against negative radiation of sunlight
...
The relationship between carbon dioxide, oxygen and living organisms is well
known
...
It has been found that methane gas accounts for about 16% of the
warming effect of the atmosphere, and that about two thirds of the methane gas emissions are
caused by decomposition in irrigated field, and in the guts of cattle! It is ironic that life providing
activities, such as agriculture and cattle breeding are, are now threatening our survival on this
planet, and possibly also the survival of the planet itself
...

The excessive population growth in today‘s third world countries is not the cause of the present
precarious situation
...
However, the third world, partly
because of the large numbers of inhabitants that it needs to feed, clothe and provide amenities
for, is aggravating the situation
...
To do
so, it necessarily needs to turn to industrialization, with all the inherent consequences involved
...

Considerable parts of the tropical rain forests of Africa are already gone
...
Loss of arable land is a very serious matter because it affects
the livelihood of a large part of the African rural population
...
Shifting patterns of rainfall, or lack
of it, are also well documented
...

Global climatic changes, brought about by global warming will have a considerable negative
impact on life on earth, and, like all other continents, Africa will also be affected
...
Shifts in temperature, air humidity and
precipitation may be too fast for nature to adjust to
...
In this regard, West Africa is particularly vulnerable
...
2
1
...


3
...
We also said that it is concerned with the
complex

interactions

between

development

and

environment, its purpose is to seek ways and means for
achieving sustainability in all human activities aimed at
such development
...


Further, we explained how the relationship between the natural
environment and development is very critical especially as it
touches on how development affects the environment
...
The manner and conditions in
which these factors are related can be determined within the
context of the level development attained within specific period
of time
...

Lastly we have said that environmental degradation affects
developing countries more fundamentally, than it does the
developed world
...
As such, effective
measures are called for at all levels of production, to combat
pollution and to save the environment, from degradation
...
Otiende, J, et al (1997), An Introduction to
Environmental Education, University of Nairobi
Press, Nairobi-Kenya
...
C
...
(1971) ―Development and the Human
Environment‖
...
1971
...
Ahmed, Y
...

4
...
G(1973), Environmental Pollution and
Economics, W
...
Norton and Co
...
Gadd, P (1976)
...
, London
...
1 Introduction
4
...
3 Meaning of environmental education
4
...
5 Goals, Objectives and Principles of Environmental Education
4
...
7 Approaches used in environmental education
4
...
9 References

4
...
In this lecture four we are going to
look at environment and education
...
Then we will look at
the goals, objectives and the guiding principles of environmental education
...
Finally we will end
the lecture by examining at various approaches and strategies used in disseminating
environmental education
...
2 Objectives
At the end of this lecture you should be able to:
1
...
Discuss the historical evolution of environmental education
2
...
Discuss the goals, objectives and principles governing environmental
education
4
...
Discuss the various approaches used in teaching environmental education
6
...
3 Meaning of Environmental Education
The word environment simply refers to the totality of conditions and influences that affect the
way things live and develop
...
When used in the context of environmental management, the word environment will refer
to man‘s environment
...
Environmental education involves itself in:
1
...
This
includes the study of subjects like biology and geography
...


2
...
This
will enable human kind to exist in a cohesive manner with the various environments surrounding
him
...
Involving people to participate in matters involving their environment
...

In a nutshell we can therefore say that environmental education is concerned with acquiring the
skills and attitudes necessary for enhancing environmental conservation
...


4
...
Several decades later, Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-born naturalist, echoed
Rousseau‘s philosophy as he encouraged students to ―Study nature, not books
...

The nature study movement used fables and moral lessons to help students develop an
appreciation of nature and embrace the natural world
...
Cornstock and the other leaders of the movement, such as Liberty
Hyde Bailey, helped Nature Study garner tremendous amounts of support from community
leaders, teachers, and scientists and changed the science curriculum for children across the
United States
...
Conservation Education dealt with
the natural world in a drastically different way from Nature Study because it focused on rigorous
scientific training rather than natural history
...

The modern environmental education movement, which gained significant momentum in the late
1960s and early 1970s, stems from Nature Study and Conservation Education
...
S
...
However, as more people began
to fear the fallout from radiation, the chemical pesticides mentioned in Rachel Carson‘s Silent
Spring, and the significant amounts of air pollution and waste, the public‘s concern for their
health and the health of their natural environment led to a unifying phenomenon known as
environmentalism
...
Later that same
year, President Nixon passed the National Environmental Education Act, which was intended to
incorporate environmental education into K-12 schools
...

In Europe it was during the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century that awoke the
attention of the masses towards environmental education
...
Professor Geddes (1854-1933) a botanist saw a close link between the quality of education
and environment
...
He is sometimes referred to as the father of
modern environment education
...
The United Nations Education
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Environmental
Programme (UNEP) created three major declarations that have guided the course of
environmental education
...
4
...
1972)
This conference was held in Sweden in 1972 and it was a United Nations Conference on Human
Environment
...
The conference also discussed the ways in which education can contribute to having
effective environmental policies and management
...

4
...
2 The Belgrade Charter (Yugoslavia 1975)
The Belgrade Charter was the outcome of the International Workshop on Environmental
Education held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia
...
It defines an audience for environmental education, which includes the general public
...
The programme was
charged with the responsibility of developing relevant knowledge, skills, attitudes and values for
improvement of the environment both for the present and future generations
4
...
3 The Tbilisi Declaration (USSR 1977)

The Tbilisi Declaration "noted the unanimous accord in the important role of environmental
education in the preservation and improvement of the world's environment, as well as in the
sound and balanced development of the world's communities
...

Later that decade, in 1977, the Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education in
Tbilisi, Georgia emphasized the role of environmental education in preserving and improving the
global environment and sought to provide the framework and guidelines for environmental
education
...


Activity 4
...
Define the term environmental management
...
Trace the history of environmental management from the 18th
century to the present
...
5
...
They are different in their nature
and they vary in magnitude
...
The first group consists of global environmental problems which perhaps are the ones
posing the greatest dangers to humanity
...
Chemicals in the air may also frequently travel far away from their
original site of application
...
They include increasing
desertification, development of rivers that flow across national boundaries and air pollution that
goes beyond the boundary of one nation
...
They are often referred to as local problems
...


4
...
Let us look at each
of them one by one:
4
...
1 Goals
The goals of environmental education as stipulated in the Tbilisi conference were to foster clear
awareness of the concern about economic, social, political and ecological inter-dependence in
both urban and rural areas
...
In addition, the goals aimed at creating new patterns of
behaviour of individuals, groups and society as a whole towards the environment
...
6
...
Awareness creation- that individuals and groups are made to know the environment, its
sensitivity and the problems associated with it
...
That individuals and groups are given knowledge to help them gain a variety of experiences
and gain a deeper understanding of the environment and its associated problems
3
...

4
...

5
...


To achieve the objectives of environmental education, the Tbilisi conference recommended that
each country set up or strengthen the organisational structures that are necessary for achieving
the said objectives
...
6
...
Therefore, the Tbilisi
conference came out with some guideline known as recommendation no
...
Some of the principles are as given below:
1
...

2
...
e
...

3
...

4
...

5
...

6
...
That the programme should relate environmental sensitivity, knowledge, problem solving
skills and values to learners of different age group but with special emphasis to each learner‘s
own community in the early years
8
...
It should also emphasis the complexity of environmental
problems and hence help them to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills
...
Another guiding principle of environmental programme is that the programme should be able
to utilize diverse learning environments and different educational approaches to learning
including practical activities and first hand experiences
...
6 Consumers of Environmental Education
After having looked at the guiding principles of environmental education, the next important
question that runs in our mind is who the target of environmental education is
...
In other words, it should be continuous and life-long in
both the formal and informal sector
...
The nature of environment education to be taught
depends on the objectives of the programme which ranges from public awareness courses to
environmental training courses given to specialist
...

a) Level I
This is called ecological foundation level
...

b) Level II

This is also called conceptual awareness level
...

c) Level III
This is a level where investigation and evaluation skills are taught
...

d) Level IV
This is the last level and it aims at training the learner to apply the skills learned
...

4
...
An approach simply means a set of very broad guidelines on how to
plan an action on a process in education
...
The Interdisciplinary Approach
This is a model of teaching environmental education where a distinct environmental education
unit course is created out of relevant components of many disciplines
...


According to

UNESCO, interdisciplinary teaching is a teaching method in which two or more disciplines are
expressed in terms of their interrelationships (UNESCO-UNEP IEEP, 14, 1985)
...
This method also advocates the
integration on linking of environmental education with printing school subjects, with each
subject contributing to the realization of the objectives of environmental education
...
Multidisciplinary Approach

In this model environmental education components are infused or integrated into relevant
disciplines (UNESCO, 1986)
...
However, the appropriateness of this approach usually depends on
the characteristics of learners and the available learning resources
...

Take Note
The interdisciplinary and the multidisciplinary approaches are the main
approaches in the teaching of environmental education
...
Problems Solving Approach
This is a practical and solution based method which aims at finding solutions to problems related
to environment
...
It focuses more on the environmental problems and how they can be solved and not
on learners
...
It uses the following seven
approaches to solve the problem:


The discussion group approach



Divided environmental interpretation



Classification of values



Harming and simulation



Experimental demonstration workshop



A practical action project



Action-oriented research
...

4
...
It involves action by the
entire community towards the solution of the problems
...


Examples of community based approaches in solving community problems are

Harambee projects that are conducted to solve different problems affecting the community
...
8 Summary
In this lecture we explained that environmental education refers to all those
conditions which affect the living and non-living things
...
Later environmental education
gained international recognition when United Nations Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Environmental
programme (UNEP) created three major declarations: They were the
Stockholm declaration (Sweden 1972), the Belgrade Charter (Yugoslavia
1975) and the Tbilisi declaration (USSR 1977)
We also discussed the goals, objectives and the guiding principles of
environmental education which aim at creating awareness, acquiring
knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to protect and improve the
environment
...

Finally we ended the lecture by examining various approaches used in
environmental education and noted that the interdisciplinary and the
multidisciplinary

approaches

are

the

disseminating environmental education
...
9 References
1
...
et‘l (2005; Reprint) Environmental Education – Essential
knowledge for sustainable Development, Longhorm Publishers, Nairobi
...
Otienede J
...

3
...

4
...
S and Naveh, Z, (eds
...

5
...

6
...
et‗l eds (1975) Insights into Environmental education,
Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh

LECTURE FIVE
POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT
Lecture Outline
5
...
2 objectives

5
...

5
...
5 Effects of population growth on the environment
5
...
7 Summary
5
...
1 Introduction
In the preceding lecture we discussed environment and education
...
It covers the
following critical areas: Meaning of population, population as part of the environment, effects of
population growth on the environment and Population control and its impact on the environment
...
2 Objectives
At the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
7
...
State the relationship

between Population and the

environment
9
...
Describe Population control techniques and its impact on the
environment

5
...
That is one reason why we have decided in this

lecturer to use the term human population which is closer to the Geographers' or demographers'
concept
...
Numbers here refers to population size, growth rate
and density (which are an element of distribution)
...
In some
regions of the world, there is a violent population explosion
...
As early as
1798, Malthus warned that the amount of food being produced in Europe would soon be
insufficient for the fast growing population
...

The Industrial Revolution in Europe is said to have been an important cause of the rapid
population growth; towards the end of the eighteenth century
...

These factors greatly improved chances of human survival
...

Malthus' analysis was the first attempt to systematically understand the relationship between
population change and socio-economic welfare
...
Whereas
production can only increase in arithmetical progression, population grows in geometrical
progression or what Hardin (1975) terms, exponentially
...
Output increases slowly while the supply of labor
increases rapidly; the net result is a fall in per capita income
...
Their argument is that there is a lot of land lying fallow that
could be occupied by additional people
...
Some even advocate that national parks and game reserves be turned
into habitable land to be occupied by the additional population
...
Any
efforts to control birth are thought to be against the wishes of the Creator, who, at creation,
ordered men to multiply and fill the earth
...
A secular variation of this view would be that
nature should be allowed to take its course; in the event of overpopulation there are natural
phenomena which counteract the situation and restore the balance
...
Some argue that more
births are a blessing since the labor force increases
...
Besides, the Law of Diminishing
Returns shows that an over increase in the labor force is counterproductive
...
According to this school of thought, most people who
worry over population increase are trying to find a way to avoid relinquishing any of the
privileges they now enjoy
...

It would be wise to listen to those views which should not be dismissed as of little importance
given the current economic conditions
...
Therefore, to encourage
excessive additional numbers of people is tantamount to willingly courting an imminent disaster
...
Attention has often been
drawn to the problems present by the current trends in the growth of population, the difficulties
of ensuring adequate food supplies for the human race and the and the continued strain upon
stocks of renewable and non-renewable resources
...

5
...
1
...
On the basis of size,
settlements smaller than towns are rural and the size of, or larger than towns, are urban
...
On the other hand, urban centers are inhabited by people engaged in manufacturing and
service activities such as administration and commerce
...
It also includes an increase in the percentage of the population living in urban
settlements
...

Intext Question
Can you now think of other differences between rural and
urban settlements?

In historic times, progressive change among Africans and other peoples of the earth was
incidental; an outcome of the altering patterns of natural phenomena and their effects on the
environment
...
But to what extent, and in what ways, did man purposely seek to
guarantee his survival?
Africa‘s Neolithic villages of the Nile Valley (which date from as early as 4,000 B
...
) already
showed signs of changes from the Neolithic agrarian pattern of the region
...
C)
...
It intensified
agricultural and exchange activities which depended upon communal efforts through some form
of social organization of a large number of people
...
In North Africa, such groupings were already in
existence between 5,000 B
...
C
...
The rural input the form of labor and environmental
resources in these early settlements became the basis of economic and urban growth
...
The concept of divine kingship emerged in urban and rural
settlements as the basis of social control and inter-territorial exchange relations
...
Given the abundance or scarcity of environmental resources,
they needed well-coordinated social systems within which they could collect, store and distribute
resources appropriate from the environment and the agricultural surplus created through
improved methods of food production
...
Pre-agricultural men, by
necessity, had to be dispersed over the landscape as hunting and gathering required a vast area of
territory to produce enough food for a home
...
But the agrarian revolution began to change all that
...
Hence, the

ability of farmers to feed more than their own families was obvious prerequisite of urbanization
...

5
...
2
...
6 per cent between 1968 and 1972 compared to 35
...

In fact, the GNP has continued to fall and there is a clear indication of increased
unemployment and poverty, particularly in urban slums and squatter areas
...
Moreover, continuous inflation further erodes the purchasing
power of the currency in many developing countries
...
Food
shortages could be attributed to underproduction; but a more obvious reason is that, the
demand (due to the large number of consumers) is beyond the capacity of production
...

Land produces less when there is a lack of rainfall
...
Incidences of
famine are on the increase and, when they occur, developing t countries have to depend on rich
developed countries for food
...

More population means more movement
...
Unemployment is the most critical
issue in developing countries
...
In
desperation, many people turn to such unacceptable activities as theft, prostitution and thuggery
...
Schools are overcrowded and yet not all school age children can be
accommodated
...
How many people can the country provide for decently? Tremendous growth in the
world population is anticipated before the year 2000
...
According to Soutwick (1985), human population
will increase by about 55 per cent, from 4
...
4 billion in the year 2000; faster
growth is expected in the less developed countries
...
4 billion people, 5
billion will be found in these countries
...
3
...
8 and that it is one of the highest in the world, how do we arrive
at that figure? The simplest method used by the demographers is to compare the Birth Rate and
the Mortality (Death) Rate of a given country or community
...
Cultural values that include a
persistent desire for big families are / still dominant
...

Whereas birth rates are increasing, death rates are falling rapidly due to:
•

Modern health measures;

•

Modern eating habits and lifestyles;

•

Rising life expectancy; and

•

Declining wars and local conflicts (in the more peaceful areas of Africa)
...

5
...
4 Population Distribution
Population distribution is another very important factor in understanding problems related to the
environment
...
Take, for example,
the African continent
...
A country like Nigeria, which is
smaller than Sudan, holds over 50 million people while Sudan has less than 10 million
...

Most people in Kenya live in the south-western half of the country
...

5
...
5 Migrations
Migrations, which are seldom anticipated or planned for, alter the population of both the country
of origin and the country of destination
...

There are numerous physical and socio-economic reasons for cross- boundary migrations
including civil wars
...

Population dynamics affect many aspects of life: political and social relations, resources, the
environment, food and nutrition, health, social services and employment
...
Currently, opinions
range from drastically curbing population growth as a first step to solving all other socioeconomic problems, encouraging it to help solve those very same social problems
...
1
1
...
Discuss the effects of population growth on the
environment
3
...
4 Population as part of the environment

Ecologically, people are part and parcel of the environment; they actively interact with its
components
...
It is in this way that they are able to survive and realize their role as humans
...
In this process, there is considerable interaction between people and the environment
...
They now realize that, if humanity is to survive, great care must be taken of all
natural resources
...

Due to various reasons, including thoughtlessness, neglect of their divine duty and selfishness,
men has overused their habitat
...

Although Thomas Malthus foresaw the possibility of a shortage of food supplies about two and a
half centuries ago, his warnings were not taken seriously until the middle of our century
...
Hundreds of millions more are suffering from
malnutrition
...
Most -of those are related to the increase in population and the ' irresponsible
use of the environment
...

Everywhere on earth people now feel the threat of environmental problems, see the need for
identifying their causes and realize the urgency of finding solutions
...

It is true that the rapid growth of cities has raised numerous problems such as atmospheric
pollution, traffic congestion, urban overcrowding, shelter shortage, inadequate planning and the

like
...
It is therefore pertinent to note that problems related to both urban and rural
deterioration have been with us for centuries
...
As a
hunter, fisherman and forager, he feeds on a substantial number of different plant and animal
species
...
Historically
speaking, the first small population of human beings probably appeared on earth between one
and two million years ago, probably on the continent of Africa
...
In their quest to provide subsistence,
shelter and recreation for specific demographic units, human beings have learned to modify and
exploit the environment to their advantage in a great variety of ways
...

But when the drying process of the present day Sahara region become more pronounced by 5,000
B
...
, adverse environmental changes in the area had already driven the early African inhabitants
to more complex adaptation and development of efficient ways of exploitation the habitat
...

While agriculture and settlement had become possible in the area by this period, a similar
process was taking place elsewhere although it may not have been at the same pace
...
Whereas the adoption of
agriculture marked the genesis of a more intensified exploitation of the habitat, the resultant
multiplication and localization of food supply entailed by this phenomenon boosted population
growth; it was because of this that the need for permanent human settlement arose
...

What do we mean by human settlement?
...

But we also talk of farms dotted about the countryside as dispersed settlement notwithstanding
the rigidity of these different images of settlement as portrayed either in rural villages or urban
centers, economic activity may help in defining types of settlements
...

Man is part of the environment and he/she must use it to survive
...

Through ignorance, sheer carelessness, curiosity or desire for economic and social growth, man
has often misused or overused the environment in wasteful ways
...
Over cultivation and overgrazing have led to soil erosion by wind or
water
...
Deforestation, excessive mining, hunting, fishing and draining of
water resources, are some of the typical activities through which man has caused a serious

imbalance in the environment
...

• The use of some chemicals and/or techniques to suppress or control human diseases and
enemies such as insects, animals and reptiles
...
Certain drugs for protection against, or cure of, diseases have also had
nefarious effects on nature
...

• Certain patterns of human settlement can adversely affect the environment; the congestion of
people in particular areas can lead not only to pollution but also to the disruption of the natural
ecosystems of these areas
...

Settlement on river banks and seashores not only interferes with the natural course of such
features, but also leads to pollution as these waters become the dumping grounds for human
waste
...
Dangerous chemicals
and wasteful techniques are used to

sustain

the

increasing

population
...
Research centers must be established to
study the new problems created by the increased population and its activities; the spread and
concentration of settlements, more cultivation, deforestation, mining, hunting and fishing
...
4
...
Population and Land
It would be a mistake to think of land merely as space to be occupied without taking into
consideration the carrying capacity of the said land; that is without considering the number of
people that land is capable of supporting without any danger of depreciation
...


Even if people were given a piece of land in such an area, they would be reluctant to settle there;
areas with greater resources are more attractive and tend to be overcrowded
...
Today, such families have an average of half an acre
...
The result is landlessness, migration to towns and development of slum areas
...
Water shortages, soil
exhaustion, loss of forests, air and water pollution, and degradation of coastlines afflict many
areas
...

Most developed and developing economies currently consume resources much faster than they
can regenerate
...
As we humans exploit nature to meet present needs, are we destroying
resources needed for the future?
5
...
2 Technology, Human Settlement and Environmental Degradation
But how many people can the earth support? There is simple answer to this question as
‗capacity‘ may be defined in different ways, and may change with time
...

It is not yet clear whether or not or even when we will run short of environmental resources such
as land, energy, fossil fuels, water, food and renewable resources
...
The crucial question to be asked about a renewable resource
is ―Does the rate of production or replenishment equal the rate of contrast, the question that may
be asked is simply ―how much exists and how long will it last at the present rates of
consumption?

If the rate of consumption of a given resources exceeds the maximum sustainable yield, sooner
or later the stocks will be exhausted and the human population depend on that resource will be
impoverished and possibly perish
...
Their settlement patterns and demands
would certainly tax the environment understood in this context, as the set of natural conditions
that define human living space
The environment has four functions
...
As a source of available goods, it provides air, water, a useful and pleasant landscape and
natural recreational facilities both in urban and rural settings
2
...
As a receptacle of waste, it is burdened with what is a discarded introduction and
consumption activity: solid waste, emitted, pollutants accumulated, partly or fully
decomposed, transported to other areas or transformed
...
The environment provides space for the location of economic systems such as land for
industries and residences, agriculture and infrastructure
...
From the
stone onwards, man has influenced the landscape by changing forests into meadows, digging
ditches and canals, building dykes and converting salt marshes into cropland
...
Questions related to environmental
problems emerge from the study of several pivotal issues
...
It should be reiterated that
the conditions that make the earth hospitable to its human settlers result from complex and
perhaps fragile balances among the great chemical cycles water, nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus
and sulphur, all powered by the energy of the sun
...

5
...
3
...
The urban population of the world increased from 1,350 million in 1970 (about 37
...
3%) BUT THE annual growth of
urban settlement remained 2
...
9 per cent in 1970 and 1980 respectively
...

The African case demonstrates the fact that rapid urbanization has not been confined to
industrialized countries
...
That is more than the growth rate of Los Angeles between 1950 and 1960
...

Indeed, pessimism may be generated by projecting the present rate of human population growth
worldwide into the future
...
However alarming the future may appear it is clear that the 1970‘s marked a climax and
a turning point in gigantic transformation of human settlement patterns in developed countries
where previously the majority of the world largest cities were to be found, the growth of urban
centers began to slow down and a process as spread into surrounding areas go underway
...
For the first time,
developing countries produced a greater proportion of big cities compared to developed nations
...
By 1980, 22
cities counted more than million people
...

5
...
4 Rural Settlement and the Environment
Irrigation and drainage in settled lands has brought about abrupt and sweeping transformations in
natural systems
...
It also affects both the quantity and quality of downstream flows
...
These systems become inherently unstable
...

The modification of aquatic ecosystems through irrigation practices results in:


Shifts in humidity and sedimentation



Nutrient concentration



Transport and resultant entrophication of fresh waters



Wide distribution of pesticides and herbicides



Dissemination of aquatic weeds and phreatophytic plants, and



Bacterial and viral contamination



It also leads to the spread of parasite vectors
...


Control of the spread of these diseases requires an interrelation of studies of diseases
transmission, ways in which snail or mosquito distribution may be affected by canal
maintenance, alternative patterns of human settlement and field cultivation practices
...
Clearly, as human
settlement and intervention in arid ecosystems become more widespread and complex, there is an
increased need and urgency to understand the physical, biological and social processes which
they trigger off or interrupt
...
Semi-arid land is dry and apparently
unfavorable to dense and abundant life
...
Safeguarding policies must be instituted to regulate the occupation and use of such
land in order to avoid environmental crises
...

Their goats and other animals appear to have hastened the destruction of some of the region‘s
woodlands
...

Much depends on the relationship between the pasture resources and the grazing load they bear
...
During the dry periods, the pastoralists cut down

trees to provide leaves for fodder
...

However, the birth rate of nomads is usually lower than that of settled people
...
However, here and the rest of the Maghreb
Africa, the onset of colonial occupation saw the expansion of agricultural settlement first on the
rich soils and then into semi-arid regions
...
The rapid increase in population that followed resulted in the destruction of forest,
the deterioration of vegetation and the dangerous acceleration of soil erosion
...
It is obvious that the
developing economies of Africa demand the full exploitation of their resources in order to
provide a sound economic base for balanced growth in other sectors
...

Yet the same resource wreaks havoc when there are sudden torrential rains
...
Here, as elsewhere
on the continent, there is an added need to fully utilize environmental resources because of
population increase
...

In the north and south of the Sahara, settlement has had generally unforeseen consequences
...
Moreover, people‘s
productive and extractive activities have been circumcised by the environment
...
Thus, soils resource exhaustion is an area of exploitation with
historical roots and deserts are the extreme condition arising from soil exhaustion
...
This specific degradation amounts to nearly 2,000 tonnes per square kilometer
in Central Algeria
...
Indeed, a third of the semi-arid areas has recently been created by man
...

Restoration of land quality must be a long term project
...
But in semi-arid tropics and the tropical uplands, the fragility of the soils has
never allowed the human population to expand beyond low densities
...

Elsewhere, the highlands of East Africa, the Cameroons and New Guinea are among the tropical
uplands threatened by soil erosion
...
Given that the human population passed the 4,400 million mark
in 1980 (an increase of more than 700 million over the world population in 1970), it will be
difficult to satisfy the needs of expanding human population without correspondingly modifying
the environment
...

Tropical forests are still found in many countries of the world but nearly half of their total area is
to be found in three countries alone, namely, Brazil, Indonesia and Zaire
...
Currently, they are being exploited at a rate that is ecologically
destructive and economically unsustainable
...

Inevitably, much of the forests cover will be lost by the year 2,000 through complete conversion
to other uses and by severe degradation
...
5 per cent
...
As a result, there is still natural vegetation called highland
forest which covers certain isolated parts of the Kenya highlands where it is found at altitudes
ranging from, 1,976 meters to 2,736 meters
...
At the Coast are found Witu Forests, Midagedi forests, the forested Kayas,
Gongoni forest, remnants of the Shimba Hills forest, Sokoke forest and Ramisi River valley
forest
...
In fact charcoal burning is the greatest
threat to Kenya‘s vegetation cover and the demand for charcoal is accentuated by increasing
human settlement in Kenya‘s urban centers where oil and gas prices are becoming increasingly
prohibitive
...
This proves the fact that even though the
study of ecological change is still rudimentary, there is evidence to show s that human settlement
and community lifestyle have often been a dynamic element in the disfigurement of the
environment
...
Settlement and the Pollution of the Environment
Nowadays, protection of the global environment is closely connected with a set of issues such as
the depletion of the stratospheric ozone, the long range transport of pollutants, live in large
settlements, burn fossil fuels and use technology to meet his needs
...
The number and variety

of pollutants increased still more markedly with the development of modern chemical technology
in the 19th century
...
Population Explosion and Settlement Problems
The growing size of urban areas is changing the whole pattern of land use
...
Nairobi‘s and
Kampala‘s slum and squatter settlements continue to grow and along with them, the social
consequences of poverty
...

Slums are unquestionably deplorable
...

Besides, it is a sad fact that any growing town soon has a fringe such undesirable quarters
...

As rural populations are being siphoned off into urban settlements, these three reasons combine
to give population growth the form of an urban explosion
...
Though efforts are being made to
cope with the development of the cities, problems often arise faster that they can be solved
...

Will mankind win or lose the struggle?
The question of human settlement has exposed the crises that exist in urban centers
...
They also exist in rural

areas
...
In rural areas, environmental problems have arisen out of poverty,
malnutrition, and low quality housing, poor water supply, and inadequate sanitation, prevalence
of diseases, illiteracy and natural disasters)
...
But even there, the rapid
population growth in recent times has tended to aggravated problems and impose further
constraints on resources
...
The crisis exists not only in land ecology but above all, in social ecology
...


All of these conditions result in the replacement of a highly complex organic environment with a
simplified, inorganic one
...
In Africa, such
development projects include the Volta River Scheme in Ghana; the Aswan High Dam in Egypt,
the Orange river Project in South Africa and the Kindaruma Project in Kenya
...
g
...


In the past decade in every environmental sector, conditions have either failed to improve, or
they are worsening:


Public health:

Unclean water, along with poor sanitation, kills over 12 million people each year, most in
developing countries
...
Heavy metals and other
contaminants also cause widespread health problems
...

Population pressures have degraded some 2 billion hectares of arable land — an area the size of
Canada and the U
...



Freshwater:

The supply of freshwater is finite, but demand is soaring as a population grows and use per
capita rises
...



Coastlines and oceans:

Half of all coastal ecosystems are pressured by high population densities and urban development
...
Ocean fisheries are being overexploited, and fish
catches are down
...
Forests provide over US$400 billion to the world

economy annually and are vital to maintaining healthy ecosystems
...



Biodiversity:

The earth‘s biological diversity is crucial to the continued vitality of agriculture and medicine —
and perhaps even to life on earth itself
...
Two of every three species is estimated to be in decline
...
If the global temperature rises as projected, sea levels would rise by several meters,
causing widespread flooding
...

How people preserve or abuse the environment could largely determine whether living standards
improve or deteriorate
...
Without practicing sustainable development, humanity faces a
deteriorating environment and may even invite ecological disaster
...
These include: using energy more
efficiently, managing cities better, and phasing out subsidies that encourage waste, [etc
...
Stabilizing population:
While population growth has slowed, the absolute number of people continues to increase — by
about 1 billion every 13 years
...
In the long run, to sustain higher living
standards, world population size must stabilize
...
Slowing the increase in population, especially in the face of rising per capita demand
for natural resources, can take pressure off the environment and buy time to improve living
standards on a sustainable basis
...
In turn, as individual income, savings,
and investment rise, more resources become available that can boost productivity
...

In recent years fertility has been falling in many developing countries and, as a result, annual
world population growth has fallen to about 1
...

The UN estimated recently that population is growing by about 78 million per year, down from
about 90 million estimated early in the 1990s
...
World population surpassed 6 billion in 1999 and is
projected to rise to over 8 billion by 2025
...
In 65
countries, including 9 in the developing world, fertility rates have fallen below replacement
level of about two children per woman
...
In these countries
the population continues to increase rapidly
...
7 billion people live in 47 countries
where the fertility rate averages between three and five children per woman
...

Almost all population growth is in the developing world
...
The
shares of other regions are projected to remain about the same as today
...
Water shortages are expected to affect nearly 3 billion people in
2025, with sub-Saharan Africa worst affected
...

Family planning programs play a key role
...
―Even
in adverse circumstance — low incomes, limited education, and few opportunities for women
— family planning programs have meant slower population growth and improved family
welfare,‖ the World Bank has noted
...
Practicing
sustainable development requires a combination of wise public investment, effective natural
resource management, cleaner agricultural and industrial technologies, less pollution, and slower
population growth
...
Just when
it stabilizes and thus the level at which it stabilizes will have a powerful effect on living
standards and the global environment
...

5
...
5 Conclusion
In treating of human settlement, we have touched upon almost all aspects of human social and
economic activity and related them to environmental questions
...
But as noted out earlier, the understanding of ecological change is still
in a rudimentary stage although human element in their own environment
...


Because history is part of the environment, examining the rural and urban settlement patterns in
one‘s country and era involves seeing them in the context of the past so as to perceive and
formulate trends in ecological and social change
...

However, it is equally to note that urban and rural squalor is a most degrading human
environmental condition
...

African countries have been caught up in a web most frequently described as underdevelopment
...
While African
resources are precious and should be used sparingly and wisely for the benefit of the African
countries themselves, the human conscience of the overdeveloped West is largely directed
towards domination and exploitation
...

But while the overdevelopment of the West is cushioned by the relentless exploitation of Third
World ecological resources; and while the Southern languish in liquidity problems, unfair pricing
of their resources and deteriorating climatic conditions, they have yet to contend with the twin
problem of technological advancement in the west
...
Many African settlements are threatened
by these
...

This is because Africa was incorporated in the economy of production and exchange on very
unequal terms with the Western nations
...
The
watchdogs of these interests are the Western dominated monetary institutions, the international
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank which force African and other Third World countries
to operate within a sort of orthodoxy favorable to the developed West
...
Falling prices of most raw materials extracted
from its environment have been coupled with the shrinking share of Africa in world trade
...
When the debt crises in Africa and the rest of the third world is analyzed properly, it
provides a clear picture of how the global economy operates in its most thoroughly irrational
mode
...
There is increasing need to rethink and raise our economic
system to a level more in line with the realities of the ecology and the global resource situation
...
Whereas this
effort must be largely political, the campaign should be strongly supplemented by legal and
boycott action against all environmental transgressions
...
Although the foundations of civilizations have rested heavily on their particular
supplies of energy, the world community is now at an energy crossroads as environmental

resources increasingly become politicized and selfish misused
...

5
...
In the scramble, some people get little or nothing
while others profit by their positions of power to acquire tracts of land
...
This leads to frustration and social conflicts when
families are unable to acquire sufficient land on which to survive
...
The
destruction of some animal and plant species or some organisms has affected the functional
relationships between human beings and their physical environment
...

Natural forest and good agricultural land have been indiscriminately used for human
settlement
...
Schools and hospitals are overcrowded and
this results in poor services and creates situations conducive to infectious and contagious
diseases
...
Both congestion and limited resources have led to
increased urban crime rate, accidents, conflicts and pollution in general
...

5
...
1Air pollution
Chemicals such as carbon monoxide from motor vehicles and other gases from industries and
factories including sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxide and hydro carbonates are continuously
discharged into the atmosphere
...
The situation is made even
worse by fuel and trash burning
...
There is no doubt that those emissions have similar
effects on plants, animals and man himself
...
Smog first appeared there during World War II and
even now, all the efforts made by the Air Pollution Control District (APCD), have been unable to
improve the air quality
...
Each worker is
faced with the virtual necessity of using a vehicle to move around in an immense city which
lacks an adequate public transportation system
...

Cities in the developing countries may soon fall into a similar predicament
...
This may be due to the large expanse
of metallic roads and the growing number of concrete buildings
...

Air pollution is a threat to health
...

5
...
2 Water Pollution
The growth of industries in cities leads to an increased demand for clean water
...
As a result, sewage treatment and
refuse disposal facilities are quickly outgrown
...

Population growth has also led to the need for increased agricultural production and these results
in heavier application of pesticides, herbicides and nitrate fertilizers
...
Attempts to introduce exotic species of fish into a body of water in
order to provide more human food may also result in ecological disasters
...
Solid waste has become an aesthetic disaster in
Nairobi, whether waste is piled up to disintegrate or burnt to- dispose of it, the air becomes
unpleasantly polluted
...

5
...
3 Geo-ecological Hazards
Whenever there is human concentration, the surface of the earth is disfigured by wasteful
methods of cultivation, overgrazing, sheer movement and deforestation
...
The remains of mining activities and
the mines themselves greatly affect the biosphere as they destroy the earth's beauty
...
5
...
Aquatic foods consumed by human beings, such as fish, may cause
both blindness and deafness
...
Lead poisoning causes miscarriages among other disastrous
effects
...
In fact the long-term
ecological effects of heavy metals on the seas have not yet been ascertained thoroughly but can
apparently be disastrous
...
5
...
X-Ray machines, certain chemicals and roods
can have serious radioactive effects on men such as genetic defects, cancer and stillbirths
...
5
...
Amplified music, sonic booms and supersonic
aircraft produce noise that is detrimental to man's hearing
...

5
...
7 Pesticides and Nitrogen
Synthetic insecticides, chlorinated hydrocarbons (like DDT), benzenehexachloride (BHC),
aldrin, lindrane,
...
and even the organophriphates like azodrin, phodrin, and
diazonetin are all designed to kill insects, but they also affect plants, animals and man himself in
many ways
...

In a number of instances, agriculture today can also be considered ecologically hazardous
...
Because
some synthetic pesticides have a toxic effect on so many other non-target organisms, they are
sometimes labeled 'biocides
...

Poisonous fumes are very mobile and can be blown about the atmosphere as dust panicles; they
can also travel in air and water currents
...

A concentration of DDT in the food chain poses a definite danger to the life and the reproductive
capacity of certain fishes birds
...
These are vivid
examples of the disastrous effects of DDT and other pesticides
...
Although the organisms in it will die, the dangerous chemicals that the
water contains will not be removed or broken down
...
miles)
...
Similar problems exist in other lakes in the heavily industrialized countries
...
Whereas overpopulation cannot be blamed exclusively for this state of affairs, it is
certainly responsible for intensified environmental pollution and other problems
...

5
...
Indirect control can be made effective in two different ways
...
In many countries, the government
controls human settlement by restricting it in certain places
...
There are laws prohibiting settlement in some areas which are hazardous to
human life
...

There are also policies encouraging settlement in the marginal lands in order to avoid excessive
concentration of people in some of the best agricultural areas in the country
...
These new settlements have
eased the population density in certain areas like Kakamega and Kisii
...
The main type of population movement in developing countries like
Kenya is migration from rural to urban areas in search of employment
...
Urban areas are
often thought to offer greater opportunities for improving one's life
...

An attempt is being made to transform the rural areas and provide them with facilities similar to
those in urban areas
...
One of the main objectives S of the District Focus for Rural
Development in Kenya is to ensure equal development for all districts and make them more
attractive
...

Direct attempts to control population occur in two ways
...
The former approach
has not received as much emphasis as the latter
...

Several methods have been developed or identified for family planning, but those which are
commonly in use today include:
Sterilization: Sterilization in males is called vasectomy and that in female is called tubectomy
...
It is usually a permanent method, of contraception,
although the process can sometimes be reversed
...
They prevent pregnancies and suppress ovulation
by causing the production of thick cervical mucus which is impenetrable to sperm
...
The gadgets seem to
render the uterus inhospitable to both eggs and sperms thus preventing or stopping pregnancy
...

Pills are a combination of synthetic forms of the hormones progesterone and estrogen
...
Pills are taken every
day in a 21 or 28-day cycle depending on the pill type
...

Condom: The condom is a sheath or thin rubber (latex) envelope which is put on a man's erect
penis before intercourse to collect the semen, hereby keeping the sperm from entering the
woman's vagina
...
This is a soft rubber cup with a stiff but flexible rim around the edge which is
inserted into the woman's vagina before intercourse
...

Vaginal contraceptives: These are foams, creams, jellies, tablets, sponge (today) and
suppositories, all chemical substances containing spermicidal
...
These
contraceptives render the sperm inactive
...
Ways to
determine a woman's approximate time of ovulation and her fertile time include; keeping records
of the menstrual cycle, the body temperature and the consistence of the cervical mucus (Billings
ovulation method)
...
This is attributed to the following
factors
...
These /are chances varying
between 0
...
The use of contraceptives is sometimes associated with prostitution and loose morals
...
Certain family planning devices are thought
by some to deny the full enjoyment of sex and prevent satisfaction
...
Many people lack proper and adequate education on family planning
and the use of the various methods
...
Most fears related to
family planning come as a result of ignorance and prejudice
...

5
...

It defined human population and some related concepts such as birth rate and death rate and
discusses how these help to determine the growth rate of the population
...

Subsequently, a brief definition of environment is presented followed by a discussion on the use
of the environment by man
...
The visible effects
of population growth on the Environment are then outlined
...
Population growth even creates new forms of pollution
...

The last pan of the chapter explains the attempts by man to control the population by indirect and
direct methods
...
Nevertheless the need to control the population is
obvious, since it continues to increase while environmental resources are decreasing very rapid
In treating of human settlement, we have touched upon almost all aspects of human social and
economic activity and related them to environmental questions
...
But as noted out earlier, the understanding of ecological change is still

in a rudimentary stage although human element in their own environment
...

Because history is part of the environment, examining the rural and urban settlement patterns in
one‘s country and era involves seeing them in the context of the past so as to perceive and
formulate trends in ecological and social change
...

However, it is equally to note that urban and rural squalor is a most degrading human
environmental condition
...


LECTURE SIX
GLOBAL PEACE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION
Lecture Outline
6
...
2 Objectives
6
...
4 Benefits of environmental conservation
6
...
6 Global peace and environmental conservation
6
...
7 Summary
6
...
1 Introduction
This lecture has been designed to help you understand what global environmental conservation is
all about
...

6
...
Define environmental conservation
...
Understand the benefits of environmental conservation
...
Explain the dimensions of environmental conservation
14
...

15
...
3 Meaning of environmental conservation

Environmental conservation is sensible use of the earth's natural resources in order to avoid
excessive degradation and impoverishment of the environment
...
g
...

The scientific discipline concerned with the ways in which Earth's biological diversity is lost and
the development of solutions to protect the natural functioning of ecosystems and the species
that reside within them
...
Combining this information with
knowledge of how various factors (such as habitat destruction, overharvesting, pollution,
introduced species, and the effects of global warming) contribute to species decline and
extinction enables scientists and wildlife managers to design protection plans for vulnerable
forms
...

Climate change, reduced forest cover, depletion of fresh water basins, pollution, drought and
famine are testament to the urgent need for interventions to restore balance within
the environment and its eco-systems
...

Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the environment, on individual,
organizational or governmental level, for the benefit of the natural environment and (or) humans
...
This has been recognized and governments have begun
placing restraints on activities that caused environmental degradation
...
There is not a full agreement on the extent of the environmental impact
of human activity and protection measures are occasionally criticized
...


Protection of the environment is needed from various human activities
...
Many Constitutions
acknowledge the fundamental right to environmental protection and many international treaties
acknowledge the right to live in a healthy environment
...
There are International environmental
protection organizations, such as the United Nations Environment Program
...
Nobody could refute the implication of balanced
social and environmental aspects
...
It could be a big help in making equilibrium between the environmental
conservation systems and trade and industry development
...

To the extent that the consumers are worried, this concept could help in lessening negative
impacts of environment in the society
...
Simultaneously, organizations
could also gather remarkable benefits throughout environmental sustainability
...


Approximately every company organization requires adopting environmental protection and
conservation policies in turn to look after the environment
...
Let‘s say that if
an organization runs to carry out good work by implementing the contemporary loom of
recycling the whole thing and then redesigning products to decrease manufacture of toxic
materials, then it could take pleasure in a firm standing in the business
...


In the last years, the environment has turn out to be a key question for the countries worldwide
...
In the larger viewpoint, environmental
protection and conservation could be considered an efficient base for a sustainable
development
...
4 Benefits of environmental conservation
A healthy environment is as important an element to life as food, water and shelter
...
From climate change to acid rain to
pollution to deforestation, there are many problems that must be addressed to correct the harms
being done to the environment
...
This is where the basic needs of the population are
being met but there is not so much wealth that unnecessary products are being consumed that is
harmful to the environment
...

Green spaces are a great benefit to our environment
...
These are just a few of the environmental benefits that green spaces provide
...
Proper landscaping reduces nitrate leaching from the soil into the
water supply and reduces surface water runoff, keeping phosphorus and other pollutants out of
our waterways and preventing septic system overload
...
Trees in a parking lot can reduce on-site heat buildup, decrease runoff
and enhance night time cool downs
...
showed a 31
degree difference between shaded and un-shaded areas
...
A dense cover of plants and mulch holds soil in place, keeping sediment
out of lakes, streams, storm drains and roads; and reducing flooding, mudslides and dust storms
...
Trees, shrubs and turf remove smoke, dust and other pollutants from the
air
...
One study showed that one acre of trees has the ability to remove
13 tons of particles and gases annually
...

Lower attic temperatures
...
According to the EPA, urban forests reduce urban air temperatures significantly by
shading heat sinks such as buildings and concrete and returning humidity to the air through
evaporative cooling
...
By using trees to modify temperatures, the amount of fossil
fuels used for cooling and heating is reduced
...
The trees also allow the sun to warm the house in the winter
...
Led by cities such as Chicago and Toronto, as well as a
number of universities, evidence is mounting that green roofs (i
...
roofs totally or partially
covered with vegetation) can play an important role in saving energy, reducing the urban heat
island effect and adding more green space to a built environment
...
Lawns will be 30 degrees cooler than asphalt and 14 degrees cooler than
bare soil in the heat of summer
...
Homeowners can ―grasscycle‖ by leaving grass clippings on
the lawn when mowing
...
Modern
mulching lawn mowers make ―grasscycling‖ even easier, and homeowners can reduce their
mowing time by 30 to 40 percent by not having to bag clippings
...


Trees naturally remove pollutants from the air, so every tree that‘s

subtracted from a city‘s ecosystem means some particulate pollution remains that should have
been filtered out
...

Rainfall retention
...

Natural storm water management
...

Reduced temperatures
...
Scientists fear the heavily developed corridor between Boston and
Washington could be the next big hot zone
...
5 Global dimensions of environmental conservation
...
While many countries' efforts to
preserve species and their habitats have been government-led, those in the North Western
Europe tended to arise out of the middle-class and aristocratic interest in natural history,
expressed at the level of the individual and the national, regional or local learned society
...
had what we would today term NGOs —
in the shape of the RSPB, National Trust and County Naturalists' Trusts (dating back to 1889,
1895 and 1912 respectively) Natuurmonumenten, Provincial conservation Trusts for each Dutch
province, Vogelbescherming, etc
...
This in part reflects the absence of wilderness areas in heavily
cultivated Europe, as well as a long-standing interest in laissez-faire government in some
countries, like the UK, leaving it as no coincidence that John Muir, the British-born founder of
the National Park movement (and hence of government-sponsored conservation) did his sterling

work in the USA, where he was the motor force behind the establishment of such NPs as
Yosemite and Yellowstone
...

Protected areas in developing countries, where probably as many as 70-80 percent of the species
of the world live, still enjoy very little effective management and protection
...
The Adopt a Ranger Foundation has calculated that
worldwide about 140,000 rangers are needed for the protected areas in developing and transition
countries
...

One of the world's foremost conservationists, Dr
...
With
the rapidity at which the challenges to protected areas are both changing and increasing, there
has never been more of a need for well prepared human capacity to manage
...
They are on the ground
...
"
Adopt a Ranger fears that the ranger deficit is the greatest single limiting factor in effectively
conserving nature in 75% of the world
...
Adopt A Ranger has been
incorporated to draw worldwide public attention to the most urgent problem that conservation is
facing in developing and transition countries: protected areas without field staff
...
It will also help governments in developing and transition countries to assess realistic
staffing needs and staffing strategies

As we gaze into conservation process, we see still more posturing than real progress in the years
ahead
...
What we hear instead are candidates making brave speeches about the
environment, but doing little or nothing once they are elected
...
Since most voters apparently don't feel it's fair to hold a politician accountable for his
campaign pledges, the environment continues to deteriorate
...
Our assessment of the future situation also
reveals more extreme weather before meteorologists acknowledge that these "atypical patterns"
are linked to man's helter-skelter impacts on the environment
...

Conservationists today feel the sort of frustration that others before them felt
...

No one can say for certain today whether deforestation, desertification, atmospheric degradation,
oceanic pollution, global warming, or some combination of these will be the triggering
mechanism to overrule the earth's equilibrium
...
No one with the least knowledge of nature
doubts that so long as humanity continues propagating at a net increase exceeding 10,000 people
per hour, civilization itself is at risk
...
Barring
nuclear war, it almost certainly will
...
From the beginning of the 19th

century and the start of the Industrial Revolution, the fundamental question for Homo sapiens
has been, how many people can the earth support and at what standard of living?
Scientific inquiry and political debate everywhere should be directed toward answering that
question before nature herself-never one to abide by deficit spending-answers it for us
...

Yet just as Churchill never lost his faith that the good and necessary fight could be won,
conservationists today must not allow the immensity of our many challenges to demoralize us
...

Many former allies are now part of the problem
...

These agencies' and organizations' "educational materials" and "press releases" are intended only
to pacify or to enhance donations, not to stir the troops to political action
...
―Leave it to us experts" is the increasingly heard and subtly debilitating refrain
...
The cat has become as fat and lazy as the mice, and the dog (the
press), which should harry the cat, has grown equally fat and lazy
...
L
...

6
...
The first international peace park idea involving an armed conflict between
neighboring countries was in the Cordillera del Condor region between Ecuador and Peru
...

The territorial conflict between Ecuador and Peru goes back several decades
...
A peace agreement signed in February of 1995 committed both countries to the
withdrawal of forces ‗‗far‘‘ from the disputed zone
...
In compliance with the plan, both
nations organized the withdrawal of 5,000 troops from the Cenepa Valley and supervised the
demobilization of 140,000 troops on both sides
...
It should be noted that
Conservation International was actively involved in biodiversity fieldwork even before the
resolution of the conflict; it had worked closely with the military when fieldwork on
documenting the biodiversity of the region was conducted in 1993
...

As we endeavor to use collective environmental protection as a means of conflict resolution, let
us not forget that conservation efforts are often causes of tremendous conflict
...
Since many peace park projects are often being promoted by such
organizations, 26 the legitimacy of hese groups is essential for meeting the goals of conflict
resolution
...


On the one hand, pragmatic eco-revisionists have ‗attributed so many of invironmentalists‘
failures to the incuriosity about the human (read: social) sciences, like social psychology and
their scientific fetishization of the ‗natural‘ sciences
...
In a much publicized article for World
watch magazine, anthropologist Mac Chapin recently critiqued the work of the Nature
Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, and Conservation International by asserting that ‗as
corporate and government money flow into the three big international organizations that
dominate the world‘s conservation agenda, their programs have been marked by growing conflict
of interest and by a disturbing neglect of the indigenous people whose land they are in business
to protect
...
An article in Conservation Biology by Schwartzman et al
...
Interestingly enough the disagreement
here was between staff scientists at major environmental groups—some of whom were more
unequivocally sympathetic to indigenous concerns over conservation priorities
...
Yet environmentalists are collectively also
accused all too often by those on the Right of the political spectrum for being too positional and
uncompromising in their approach to problem-solving and not interacting adequately with freemarket interests
...

Environmental and human rights groups are thus often lumped together by critics of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), such as Sebastian Mallaby (2004) or Clifford Bob (2005)
who decries their unwillingness to compromise on urgent development projects
...

When dealing with matters as emotive as environmental protection and conflict mitigation, one
can‘t help but feel a sense of urgency and advocacy for a phenomenon that holds promise in
harmonizing these two worthy goals
...
However, there is little disagreement that if managed and implemented
effectively, conservation with community consent and conflict resolution are goals worth
pursuing
...

Global Peace Initiatives was founded out of the belief that there is good everywhere
...
We believe we can generate more conditions
for peace through education and heightened awareness
...
As a result, powerlessness and fear can shroud optimism and hope
...
This aims to promote messages of peace
and hope around the world that awaken a sense of possibility
...
Through the arts,
media, education programs, technology and local actions, the world should convey its message
that when creativity is nurtured and possibility thinking is encouraged, hope is nurtured
...
We believe we can inspire people to be possibility
thinkers and creative forces for peace
...
UNOs will serve as an organization to promote a critical mass
for peace consciousness by defining peace more broadly than an absence of conflict
...


Activity
1
...

2
...
7 Challenges in environmental conservation
...
Developing performance-based programs that
reward private landowners for implementing innovative conservation practices cannot succeed
without being able to quantify the performance of those practices, but quantifying environmental
performance in the real world presents numerous challenges
...


These challenges include 1) the high cost of establishing monitoring systems capable of
producing scientifically rigorous results 2) the difficulty in establishing an adequate baseline
from which to assess improvements in environmental performance 3) dealing with spatial and
temporal variability in environmental conditions 4) the mismatch between standard criteria
accepted by the scientific community and the motivations, pressures and demands of agencies
charged with implementing conservation programs
...
8 Summary
In the lecture we said that environmental conservation is sensible
use of the earth's natural resources in order to avoid excessive
degradation and impoverishment of the environment
...

Again we have said that Green spaces are a great benefit to our
environment
...
Where we have indicated that while many countries'
efforts to preserve species and their habitats have been
government-led, those in the North Western Europe tended to arise
out of the middle-class and aristocratic interest in natural history,
expressed at the level of the individual and the national, regional or
local learned society
...


6
...
H
...
H
...
1 Introduction
7
...
3 Definition and Meaning of Energy
7
...
4
...
4
...
5 Environmental Impacts of Energy
7
...
1: Environmental Impacts of Fossil Fuels
7
...
2: Environmental Impacts of Renewable Energy
7
...
6
...
6
...
6
...
7 Summary
7
...
1

Introduction

In this lecture seven we are going to examine how energy being a crucial resource in modern
society can be conserved and put into proper use
...
The various classifications of energy sources will also be examined in this
lecture
...


7
...


Explain the meaning of energy

2
...


3
...


Distinguish between renewable and non renewable
sources of energy

5
...


Explain the meaning and importance of energy
conservation

7
...


8
...


7
...
Wo r k i s s a i d b e d o n e
when a force is applied through a distance
...
The amount of work
done is measured in horse power or watts, where 746 watts is equa l to one
h o r s e p o w e r
...

There are five important forms of energy that we normall y use in our day
to day activities
...


M e c h a n i c a l e n e r g y i s e x p e r i e n c e d i n m o v i n g o b j e c t s s u c h a s a b i c yc l e
moving down hill or a turning shaft in a posho mill
...
Examples of objects
containing

chemical

energy

are

wood,

maize,

petrol,

and

dry

cell

batteries
...
g
...

Electrical energy is found in currents of moving electrons and is the most
a d a p t a b l e f o r m s o f e n e r g y
...


S o l a r e n e rg y i s e n e r g y c o n t a i n e d i n l i g h t w a v e s
...

Ta k e N o t e
1
...
F o r e x a m p l e a l i g h t b u l b
converts electrical energy to radiant and heat
e n e r g y
...
E v e r yt i m e

energy

changes

its

state

if

translates into more than one state e
...
when
a generator is switched on, its mechanical
energy is translated into both electrical and
h e a t e n e r g y
...
During transmission s ome of the energy is
lost
...


7
...
Renewable sources
of energy refer to sources of energy which are being constantl y replaced
as the energy produced is used
...

Non –renewable or conventional sources on the other hand refers to those
energy sources which become less plentiful or diminish as they are used
u p
...
Yo u s h o u l d n o t e
t h a t n o n - r e n e w a b l e s o u r c e s o f e n e rg y h a v e f i n i t e t i m e o f a v a i l a b i l i t y
while renewable sources of energy have infinite time of depletion
...
1: Classification of Sou rces of Energy

Sources of energy

Conventional or
non-renewable

Oil

Coal

Renewable

Gas

Solar

Wind

Nuclea
r

Hydro

Geothermal

Biomass

Source: Adapted fromMuthoka(2005)
7
...
1 Conventional or Non-renewable Sources of Energy
As we have already discussed, the main sources of non -renewable energy
are coal, oil and gas
...
Non-renewable energy sources come out of the ground in the form of
liquids, gases and solids
...
Natural gas and propane are normally
gases while coal is normally in solid form
...
T h e c o n s u m p t i o n o f
other products made out of crude oil like paraffin, petrol, diesel, motor
oils and jet fuels has been increasing overtime
...
Coal is the second largest fuel
source and supplies thirty percent of global energy (Muthoka et‘el 2005)
...
7 p e r c e n t i n 1 9 8 8 ( W
...
I , 1 9 9 0 )
...
It is estimated that that in future gas is
e x p e c t e d t o b e t h e w o r l d ‘s f a s t e s t g r o w i n g e n e r g y s o u r c e a n d m a n y
countries are planning to used it to reduce dependence on oil and to
minimize the environmental problems associated with other fossil fuels
...
1
1
...

2
...
4
...
Man y of these sources

are already in use in various parts of the world
...
Solar energy
2
...
H yd r o - e n e r g y
4
...
Biomass
6
...

Solar Energy
Solar energy is probabl y the most common and the main source of
renewable energy in use ex ceeding the sum of other sources b y a factor of
5 0 0 0 ( P u r d o n a n d A n d e r s o n , 1 9 8 0 )
...
Some of the
a d v a n t a g e s o f u s i n g d i r e c t a n d i n d i r e c t s o l a r e n e r g y s ys t e m s a r e a s
follows
...
Studies have shown that the use of solar energy reduces air
p o l l u t i o n b y 9 9 p e r c e n t c o m p a r e d t o c o a l ( M i l l e r, 2 0 0 5 )
b) Solar energy reduces emission of carbon dioxide (CO 2) into
the air thereby contributing to a free pollution environment
...


d) Solar energy is also inexhaustible
...

e) Another

a d v a n t a g e o f s o l a r e n e rg y s y s t e m i s t h a t i t

d o e s n ‘t u s e a l o t o f l a n d
...


In text Question
C a n yo u t h i n k o f o t h e r a d v a n t a g e s o f u s i n g
s o l a r e n e r g y?

As we said earlier solar energy also has some demerits which are as
follows:
a ) T h e s o l a r r a d i a t i o n d e r i v e d f r o m a l a rg e r e c e i v i n g a r e a m u s t
be concentrated into a very small distribution
...

b) Solar energy is not available at night or during cloudy and
o v e r c a s t w e a t h e r
...


c ) To h a r n e s s s o l a r r a d i a t i o n o n e r e q u i r e s s o l a r c e l l s w h i c h
produces toxic chemicals when they are manufactured
...

d ) S o l a r c e l l s a n d s o l a r t h e r m a l s ys t e m s a r e e x p e n s i v e t o
acquire which makes solar energy to be an expensive source
o f e n e r g y
...
The
d u r a b i l i t y o f t h e s e s ys t e m s i s i n t h e r a n g e o f t h i r t y t o f o r t y
y e a r s ( M i l l e r, 2 0 0 4 )
...
2
1) List at least four disadvantages of solar
energy which

have

not

been

discussed

above
...

I n K e n ya d i r e c t s o l a r r a d i a t i o n h a s l o n g b e e n u s e d t o d r y f o o d c r o p s ,
clothes and animal skins
...


Wind Power
Wi n d i s g e n e r a t e d t h e u n e v e n h e a t i n g a n d c o o l i n g o f t h e e a r t h ‘s s u r f a c e
...
Yo u s h o u l d n o t e t h a t a t a n y g i v e n t i m e

h a l f o f t h e e a r t h ‘s s u r f a c e i s b e i n g h e a t e d b y t h e s u n
...
Meanwhile,
the atmosphere on the dark side of the earth c ools and contracts
...

Wi n d e n e r g y h a s f o u n d v a r i o u s u s e s
...
In 2001 alone wind turbines
worldwide produced almost 25,000 megawatts of electricity enough to
meet the needs of about seven million homes
...

I n K e n ya t h e r e a r e o v e r t w o h u n d r e d w i n d m i l l s o p e r a t i n g i n w i n d y p a r t s
o f t h e c o u n t r y
...

The difference between windmills and wind generators is worth noting
...
T h e y u s u a l l y h a v e
t w o o r t h r e e b l a d e s w h i c h a r e t h i n l i k e t h o s e o f a n a e r o p l a n e s p r o p e l l e r
...
Wi n d
generators are usually smaller than windmills
...

The advantages of using wind power over other sources of energy is that
i t h a s a m o d e r a t e t o h i g h n e t e n e rg y , i t ‘s e f f i c i e n t a n d i t r e q u i r e s
m o d e r a t e c a p i t a l c o s t t o i n s t a l l
...
Wi n d e n e r g y s ys t e m s d o n ‘ t e m i t

carbon dioxide in the air and they are quick and easy to construct and
expand
...
Wi n d e n e r g y r e q u i r e s
steady winds for it to function well oth erwise one will require backup
s ys t e m s w h e n w i n d s a r e l o w
...
These will require wind
farms which will consume a lot of land
...

Some critics have also alleged that wind turbines suck large numbers of
birds into their wind stream
Despite

these

disadvantages,

increasingly

many

governments

and

corporations are recognizing that wind is a vast climate benign, renewable
energy resource that can supply both electricity and h ydrogen fuel at an
affordable cost
...

Wa t e r P o w e r
H yd r o e l e c t r i c e n e rg y i s a n i m p o r t a n t s o u r c e o f e n e r g y f o r t h e w o r l d t o d a y
...

a ) L a r g e s c a l e h yd r o p o w e r c a n b e g e n e r a t e d b y b u i l d i n g a h i g h d a m
a c r o s s a l a r g e r i v e r t o c r e a t e a r e s e r v o i r
...

b ) S m a l l s c a l e h yd r o p o w e r c a n b e g e n e r a t e d b y b u i l d i n g a l o w d a m
with no or small reservoir across a small stream
...


c) Pumped storage hydropower can be produced by using surplus
electricity from conventional power plant to pump water from a
lake or a reservoir to anothe r reservoir at a higher elevation
...

d) The flow of tides and waves of the ocean can a lso be used to
s p i n e t u r b i n e t o p r o d u c e e l e c t r i c i t y
...
It is relativel y
i n e x p e n s i v e w h e n c o m p a r e d w i t h o t h e r s o u r c e s o f e n e rg y
...
Wa t e r p o w e r i s a l s o c l e a n a n d i t d o e s n o t r e q u i r e b u r n i n g o f f u e l , d o e s
not pollute the atmosphere and does not produce any radioactive or other
waste when in operation
...


...
In addition,
dams constructed to receive water drop sediment that would otherwise
reach the sea and replenish the sand on beaches
...


N o t w i t h s t a n d i n g t h e s e s h o r t c o m i n g s , w a t e r p o w e r ( h yd r o p o w e r ) s u p p l i e s
a b o u t s i x p e r c e n t o f t h e w o r l d ‘s t o t a l c o m m e r c i a l e n e r g y, t w e n t y p e r c e n t
o f t h e w o r l d ‘s e l e c t r i c i t y a n d f i f t y p e r c e n t o f e l e c t r i c i t y i n d e v e l o p i n g
countries
...
T h e r e a r e a l s o m a n y u s e f u l s m a l l – s c a l e h yd r o p o w e r
installations located along fast –flowing streams or waterfalls that are
used to provide power to meet the mechanical or electrical needs of a
n e a r b y h o m e o r c o m m u n i t y
...
Geothermal energy is stored in
three forms namely as dry steam without water droplets, as wet steam
containing mixture of steam and water droplets, and as hot water which is
t r a p p e d i n f r a c t u r e d o r p o r o u s r o c k f o u n d i n t h e e a r t h ‘s c r u s t
...

These geothermal sites if found to be close to the surface ,can be used to
extract the dry stream ,wet stream or hot water by drilling wells where
these sites are located
...
When the steam reaches the
surface it is

used to turn turbines and thereby generate electric power

which is then carried by the grid to places where it is required
...
I n K e n ya
there is geothermal power project located at Olkaria, south east of lake

Naivasha which produces around thirty megawatt of power
...
P l a n s a r e u n d e r w a y b y t h e K e n ya n g o v e r n m e n t t o e x p a n d t h e
O l k a r i a g e o t h e r m a l p o w e r p l a n t t o i n c r e a s e i t s c a p a c i t y
...

Although environtal problems associated with the development and use of
g e o t h e r m a l e n e r g y a r e n o t m a n y, n e v e r t h e l e s s t h e y a r e w o r t h c o n s i d e r i n g
...
Geothermal power can
also be easily depleted if used too rapidly
...

T h e a d v a n t a g e s o f u s i n g g e o t h e r m a l p o w e r i n c l u d e ; v e r y h i g h e ff i c i e n c y,
cheaper than coal oil and nuclear fuel, low land use and moder ate
environmental impact
...
Molten rock (Magma)
2
...
Low to moderate temperature
Wa r m - r o c k r e s e r v o i r d e p o s i t s
...


Activity7
...
Explain

how

electricity

can

be

generated using hydro power plants
2
...
D e s c r i b e h o w t h e e a r t h ‘s c o m b i n e d
Heat

can

be

wiped

to

produce

g e o t h e r m a l e n e r g y
...
Biomas is available in many forms like wood logs ,
c h a r c o a l , p l a n t d e b r i s , c o w d u n g , w a t e r h ya c i n t h s a n d p a p e r
...


Fig: 7
...
2005 p 404

According to G
...
Similarly it is
estimated that almost seventy percent of the people living in developing
countries heat their homes and cook their food by burning wood or
charcoal
...
Wo o d f u e l i s u s e d m o s t l y i n
rural areas to cook meals, heat water and provide space heating especially
during the cooler months
...
Wo o d f u e l i s a l s o u s e d b y b o t h l a r g e a n d s m a l l i n d u s t r i e s t o p r o v i d e
heat needed for various manufacturing process es
...
By burning solid
biomass, all wastes plant or animal will find use and therefore will not
degrade the environment
...


7
...
From the time energy is produced, upto the
time is utilized, the environment experiences some impacts
...


Yo u s h o u l d n o t e t h a t t h e s e i m p a c t s v a r y w i d e l y d e p e n d i n g o n t h e s o u r c e
o f e n e r g y, t e c h n o l o g i e s a p p l i e d f o r i t s p r o d u c t i o n a n d t h e n a t u r e o f i t s
use
...
5
...
All fossil fuels when burnt release waste
p r o d u c t s w h i c h c a n d a m a g e h u m a n h e a l t h a n d t h e e n v i r o n m e n t
...

Studies have shown that on average fossil fuel combustion in the different
sectors accounts for the release of ninety percent of global anthropogenic
sulphur oxides ,eighty five percent of nitrogen oxides ,thirty to fifty
percent of carbon monoxide

,forty percent of particulate matter ,fifty

five percent of volatile organic compounds ,fifteen to fort y percent of
methane and fifty-five to eighty percen t of carbon dioxide (Departtmeent
of environment ,USA,1989 )
...

The most common impacts of fossil fuel on the environment are their
different emissions on urban air qualit y and their role in the formation of
acidic

deposition

and

climate

change
...


7
...
2: Environmental Impacts of Renewable Energy
A s yo u m a y r e c a l l o u r d i s c u s s i o n s o n r e n e w a b l e e n e r g y, w e e x p l a i n e d t h a t
these sources of energy are sustainable since they do not get depleted
...
I n o t h e r w o r d ‘s r e n e w a b l e e n e rg y h a v e d i v e r s e
i m p a c t s o n t h e e n v i r o n m e n t a s e x p l a i n e d b e l o w
...
For example
d a m s a f f e c t t h e f l o w o f a r i v e r a n d a s a r e s u l t a n y b i o s ys t e m
downstream will be altered
...
T h e s e g a s e s a l s o c o n t r i b u t e t o a i r
pollution as wells noise pollution
...
The burning of Biomass produces noxious
gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, sul phur oxides
which can be a health threat to people living in the vicinity and
to the entire ecosystem
...

4) Solar energy plant takes a lot of land as installing solar cells and
s o l a r t h e r m a l r e q u i r e l a r g e a m o u n t o f l a n d b e c a u s e o f t h e d i ff u s e
nature of sunlight
...
In addition
u s i n g d i r e c t a n d i n d i r e c t s o l a r e n e rg y s ys t e m s t o p r o d u c e h e a t
a n d e l e c t r i c i t y c a n d a m a g e t h e f r a g i l e d e s e r t e c o s ys t e m s u s e d t o
c o l l e c t s o l a r e n e r g y
...


7
...
In thi s section we are
going to look at how energy can be conserved and the benefits arising
from that
...
6
...
In other
w o r d s e n e r g y c o n s e r v a t i o n m e a n s m o r e e f f i c i e n t u s e o f e n e r g y
...
T h e q u e s t i o n t h a t
a r i s e s i s w h a t i s e ff i c i e n c y a n d h o w c a n i t b e m e a s u r e d ?
The energy efficiency of an y device is the measure of how much the
potential energy available is actually used to do a given job
...


T h e e ff i c i e n c y o f a d e v i c e i s m e a s u r e d b y d i v i d i n g t h e a c t u a l d e l i v e r e d
energy b y total potential energy available as given in the e quation below:
P e r c e c e n t a g e o f e ff i c i e n c y = A c t u a l d e l i v e r e d e n e r g y x 1 0 0
To t a l p o t e n t i a l e n e r g y
7
...
2 Strategies and Benefits of Energy Conservation
In order to have sustainable development, available energy should be
optimally used in such a way that it mitigates the various risks associated
with the current global energy production and consumption patterns
...
It should however be noted that the strategies used to
improve

energy

efficiency

and

consider the specific fuel mix

promote

energy

conservat ion

should

a n d t h e t e c h n o l o g i e s e m p l o ye d i n e a c h

sector of development together with the efforts made to improve energy
management
...
Similarly in California, U
...
A, both public
and private initiatives towards energy conservation resulted in subst antial
economic and social savings and proved to be three to five times cheaper
than new power plants (WRI, 1988)
...
S
...
About forty one percent of
this energy is wast ed automatically
through conversion and the rest (forty
three percent) is wasted unnecessarily
m o s t l y b y:
1
...

2
...

7
...
3 Strategies to Save Energy in Industrial Related Projects
I n t h e i n d u s t r y s e c t o r e n e r g y s a v i n g s c a n b e r e a l i z e d b y:
a ) C o g e n e r a t i o n o r c o m b i n e d h e a t a n d p o w e r ( C
...
P
...
T h i s m e t h o d
h a s a n e ff i c i e n c y o f u p t o e i g h t y p e r c e n t a n d i t e m i t s t w o t h i r d s

less

carbon

dioxide

per

unit

of

energy

produced

than

conventional coal fired boilers
...

b ) R e p l a c i n g E n e r g y Wa s t i n g E l e c t r i c M o t o r s
In industries where electric motors are used, energy can be saved
by replacing

these

motors

with

new

adjustable -speed

drive

motors
...
Studies in the United States of America have
shown that heavily used electric motor consumes electricity
w o r t h t e n t i m e s m o r e i t s p u r c h a s e c o s t i n o n e ye a r
...


c ) R e c y c l i n g o f P ro c e s s e d M a t e r i a l s
One way of saving energy in industrial related projects is b y
r e c yc l i n g o f p r o c e s s e d m a t e r i a l s
...
In
t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s o f A m e r i c a , t h e u s e o f r e c yc l e d a l u m i n u m g r e w
from twenty five to fifty percent between 1970 and 1983
...


7
...
That there are five important forms of energy which
are chemical energy, mechanical energy, electrical energy and
radiant energy
...

We also looked at how energy sources are classified and noted
that broadly energy sources are classified as renewable and
non-renewable sources of energy
...

The most common examples are oil, coal and gas
...
We gave examples of renewable energy
sources to be solar energy, wind energy, hydro-energy and
geothermal heat
...

Midway the lecture, we discussed the environmental effects
caused by renewable and non-renewable sources of energy
...


use

Non-renewable energy sources are mostly associated with the
emission of greenhouse gases, global warming, urban air
quality and acid rain
...
The benefits of energy conservation
include reducing pollution and environmental degradation;
improving local economy; prolonging the supply of fossil fuels
and creation of employment opportunities
Finally we ended the lecture by looking at strategies which can
be used to save energy in industrial related projects
...
1 Introduction
8
...
3 What is Global Warming?
8
...
1 The Greenhouse Effect
8
...
2 Impacts of Global Warming
8
...
4
...
4
...
4
...


On Society


...
5 Global Initiatives to Conserve the Ozone Layer and Reduce Global Warming
8
...
7 References

8
...
In this lecture we are now going to discuss the current threats to the environment
...
The term climate change traditionally refers to
changes in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to
millions of years
...

Ozone is a gas composed of three oxygen atoms and keeps about ninety five percent of the sun‘s
harmful ultraviolet radiations from reaching the earth‘s surface
...
Therefore in this lecture we are going to discuss the threats
arising from climate change and ozone loss
...

8
...


Explain the concepts of global warming, green house
effect and ozone depletion
...


List some of the common green house gases

3
...


4
...


5
...


6
...
3 Meaning of Global Warming
Global warming is the observed and projected increases in the average temperature of Earth's
atmosphere and oceans that arises as a result of the increasing use of fossil fuels (which release
large amounts of the carbon dioxide and methane), deforestation and burning of grasslands to
raise crops, and the use of inorganic fertilizers which release nitrous oxide into the troposphere
...

However, it should be noted that the concern of global warming is not purely a new
phenomenon
...

More recently, scientific evidence has pointed out that global warming is now inevitable
...
6 degrees Celsius (1
...

The concern of global warming also got the attention of United Nation Environmental
Programme (UNEP) who together with World Health Organization (WHO) established the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 with a mandate to study the science
and the impacts of climate change and to recommend possible policy responses
...

8
...
1 The Greenhouse Effect
When sunlight reaches Earth's surface some is absorbed and warms the earth and most of the rest
is radiated back to the atmosphere at a longer wavelength than the sun light
...
The absorption of this longwave radiant energy warms the atmosphere
...
The reflecting back of heat energy by the atmosphere is called the
"greenhouse effect"
...
This theory was later confirmed by
numerous laboratory experiments and measurements of atmospheric temperatures at different
altitudes and is one of the most widely accepted theories in the atmospheric sciences
...
It is not possible to state that a certain gas causes a certain
percentage of the greenhouse effect, because the influences of the various gases are not additive
...
However during the past decade it was
discovered that that other trace gases collectively contribute to greenhouse warming on a small
scale
...

According to IPCC scientists, if emission rates of carbon dioxide, CFCs, methane and nitrous
oxide continue, a global average temperature rise is predicted to rise by one percent by the year
2030 and by three percent in the year 2100
...

The most common greenhouse gases are as follows:
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Carbon dioxide is the main green house gas and is the main contributor to global warming
...
Studies done
by UNEP have shown that carbon dioxide concentrations began to rise early in the last century
and have continued to do so
...


Methane
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas produced both naturally and through human activities
...
Methane has a relatively short
lifetime in the atmosphere, most molecules having been destroyed within ten years of their
release
...

The primary mechanism for its destruction is by reaction with hydroxyl radicals (OH-), the
greater the concentration of methane the more the reductive power of the atmosphere (the supply

of hydroxyl radicals) is reduced
...

Methane has a global warming potential (GWP) of 23
...

Concentrations of methane in the atmosphere have more than doubled since the pre-industrial
period, rising from around 750 parts per billion (ppb) in 1800 to the current level of around 1750
ppb
...
If rainfall in these major source areas returns to normal, methane concentrations can
be expected to increase further
...
Where soils are waterlogged and oxygen
concentrations are low or zero, a group of microorganisms called methanogens may produce
large amounts of methane as they respire carbon dioxide to derive energy
...
Total annual methane emissions from natural
sources are estimated to be around 250 million tonnes
...
His study
indicated that up to a third of natural methane emissions may actually arise from this source
...

Another source of methane is human made
...
The main human-made sources arise from losses occurring during oil, coal and
gas extraction, from ruminant livestock and waste treatment, from landfill sites, rice cultivation
and biomass burning
...
According to 2006 data from the United States
Environmental Protection Agency, industrial sources make up only about twenty percent of all
anthropogenic sources, and include the production of nylon, and the burning of fossil fuel in
internal combustion engines
...

However, a 2008 study by Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen suggests that the amount of nitrous
oxide release attributable to agricultural nitrate fertilizers has been seriously underestimated,
most of which would presumably come under soil and oceanic release in the Environmental
Protection Agency data
...

Nitrous oxide also causes ozone depletion
...

Each year we add 7-13 million tons into the atmosphere by using nitrogen based fertilizers,
disposing of human and animal waste in sewage treatment plants, automobile exhaust, and other
sources not yet identified
...
(World Book Volume
13)

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

8
...
2 Evidence of Global Warming
In text Question
Can you show evidence that global warming is
presently occurring?

After understanding the concept of greenhouse effect, the next question that comes to your mind
is whether there is evidence of global warming occurring presently
...
The following are advanced as evidence for the
continued occurrence of global warming (Miller, 2005)
a
...

b
...

c
...

d
...

e
...
For
example, Andean glaciers are melting so rapidly that water and food supplies in countries
like Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Venezuela, and Ecuador are expected to
be at risk within 15 to 25 years
f
...

g
...

h
...


8
...
3 Impacts of Global Warming
The impacts of global warming or the change in the average annual temperature could be
harmful or beneficial to humans, other species, and ecosystems depending mostly on location
and how rapidly the climate changes
...
In this section however we are going to focus our discussion on the
possible harmful or beneficial effects of these changes
...
Some of the beneficial effects of global warming may include less
severe winters in areas where winter is normally severe, more precipitation in some dry areas,
less precipitation in some wet areas, increased food production in some areas and expanded
population and range for some plant and animal species adapted to higher temperature
...

Impacts on Agriculture and Vegetation
Agriculture is the backborne of many developing countries and even the industrialized nations
...
For example some
important world food producing countries like the U
...
A, France and even Canada seem likely to
suffer from drier soil conditions with potential adverse impacts on their ability to produce food
for the world markets (Muthoka et al 2005)
...
The flooding of many
coastal wetlands as a result of the rising temperatures would mean the lose of an essential
nursery for many fish and shrimp species
...
1 degrees centigrade per decade
...
1 degrees centigrade in a decade will have harmful or beneficial
impact on the surrounding environment
...
, 1986)
...
Climate change may also affect the frequency of outbreak of plant disease
...

Impacts on Climate and Precipitation
Global warming also affects the climate and the frequency of rainfall in any part of the world
...
When
temperatures rise, the oceans will warm and expand, and the polar ice caps in Greenland and
Antarctica may partially melt, causing sea levels to rise (Titus and Siedel, 1986)
...
5 degrees to 4
...
This rise in the sea levels is enough to flood vast
unprotected tracts of coastal land in countries like Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Egypt
...
Among the countries or nations that will be affected include island
states like the Maldives, Tuvalu and Kiribati
...


Another significant impact of global warming will be on the rainfall patterns
...
As a result of this, rain water could will runoff the land
without soaking thereby leading to river flooding and increase in the soil erosion
...
Climate changes will require new adaptations and new technologies and
even force changes in lifestyles
...
However, the society may then face other
problems like overproduction, increased surpluses, lower farm incomes, and unemployment
...
The
prolonged heat waves might also lead to the loss of lives
...

Impacts on Human Health
Global warming and changes in climate can contribute directly to the health conditions of human
being and his welfare
...
Warmer temperatures brought about by global warming will
enable disease carrying insects, parasites and viruses to carry and spread the tropical diseases to
temperate areas or mid-latitude regions
...
These diseases are acute in some countries
especially in the developing nations and they correlate with the temperatures existing in those

countries
...

Activity 8
...
Explain the following concepts:
a
...
The Greenhouse effect
2
...
List three human activities that increase the input of
greenhouse gases into the troposphere and could enhance the
earth‘s natural greenhouse effect
4
...
4 The Stratospheric Ozone Layer
Stratospheric ozone depletion is a concern because the ozone layer in the stratosphere keeps 9599% of the sun‘s ultraviolet radiation from striking the earth
...
Increased UV radiation in the lower
atmosphere, called the troposphere, can result in increased amounts of photochemical smog
...

The decrease of stratospheric ozone was first reported in 1974 and the decrease was quickly
linked to the increasing presence of a class of manmade compounds called CFC's or
chlorofluorocarbons
...


Stratospheric ozone depletion has become very much a controversial environmental, political and
economic issue as well as a complex scientific issue
...
Scientific models of the atmosphere are being constructed in order to assist
scientists in looking for other factors in Ozone depletion, evaluate their importance and predict
what may happen to our atmosphere in the future
...

This is the atmospheric layer between 16 and 48 kilometers (10 and 30 miles) above the Earth‘s
surface
...

Ozone and oxygen molecules in the stratosphere absorb ultraviolet light from the Sun, providing
a shield that prevents this radiation from passing to the Earth‘s surface
...
9% of the sun‘s ultraviolet radiation, only ozone effectively
absorbs the most energetic ultraviolet light, known as UV-C and UV-B
...
The
protective role of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere is so vital that scientists believe life on
land probably would not have evolved and could not exist today-without it
...
It is now known that
ozone is destroyed in the stratosphere and that some human-released chemicals such as CFC‘s
are speeding up the breakdown of ozone, so that there are ―holes‖ now in our protective shield
...
Scientists detected the developing problem, and collected the
evidence that convinced governments around the world to take action
...


Take Note
Ozone is found in two different layers of the atmosphere, that is the
troposphere and the stratosphere
...
On
the other hand the ―good‖ ozone is found in the stratosphere
...


8
...
1 The Threat to the Ozone Layer
There is no doubt that the ozone layer is depleting day by day
...
Other measurements carried
out by scientists on the ozone layer in different areas reveal that there is an overall thinning of
stratospheric ozone everywhere except over the tropics
...


8
...
2 Causes of Ozone Depletion
Ozone depletion occurs when the natural balance between the production and destruction of
stratospheric ozone is tipped in favour of destruction
...

It was first suggested by Drs
...
Molina and S
...
However, this idea was not taken seriously until the discovery of the ozone hole
over Antarctica in 1985 by the British Antarctic Survey
...
They simply do not break down in the lower atmosphere and they can remain in the
atmosphere from 20 to 120 years or more
...
The chlorine becomes actively involved in the
process of destruction of ozone
...
Bromine compounds, or halons, can also destroy
stratospheric ozone
...

Emissions of CFCs have accounted for roughly 80% of total stratospheric ozone depletion
...
However, because CFCs remain in the atmosphere so
long, the ozone layer will not fully repair itself until at least the middle of the 21st century
...

Other ozone depleting compounds include the following:


Methyl bromide widely used as fumigant



Carbon tetrachloride that is highly toxic and cheap



Methyl chloroform used as a cleaning solvent for clothes and metals and as a propellant
in more than 160 consumer products such as correction fluid, dry cleaning sprays and
other aerosols



N-propyl bromide, increasingly used as solvent for degreasing and cleaning metal parts



Hexachlorobutadiene, also increasingly used as a cleaning solvent and



Hydrogen chloride emitted into the stratosphere by space shuttles

8
...
3 Effects of Ozone Depletion
Must we care about the ozone loss given that it is happening so many miles from the earth‘s
atmosphere? This question can best be answered after our discussion on the effects of ozone loss
...
It can
affect important food crops like rice by adversely affecting cyanobacteria, which helps them
absorb and utilize nitrogen properly
...
Studies in this regard have shown that ultraviolet
rays can influence the survival rates of these microscopic organisms by affecting their orientation
and mobility
...
Strong
ultra violet radiation from the sun can cause inflammation of the cornea, the outer coating of the
eyeball, leading to photokeratosis or "snow blindness"
...
The trauma appears 3-12 hours after exposure
...
A
long-term exposure to UV radiation however, may cause permanent damage to the cornea
...
A cataract is a partial or complete opacity of the lens of the eye
and the largest cause of blindness in the world
...
Damage will in time particularly
occur to near vision
...
Radiation is partly absorbed in the
lens of an adult eye, but will go right through the lens of a child, reaching the back of the eye
...

Other common eye diseases associated with increased ultra violet radiation are eye cancer,
conjunctivitis and pterygium
...
Pterygium is a thickening of the membrane that covers the
eyeball
...
If stratospheric ozone decreases by 10% during the spring and summer, the UV
radiation dose increases by about 12%
...
On the
contrary, research shows that eyes become more sensitive with increased exposure to UV
radiation
...
A 1% decrease in stratospheric
ozone may result in 100,000 to 150,000 additional cases of blindness due to eye cataracts
worldwide
...
Observational data and a new modeling study have both suggested
that decreases in stratospheric ozone in Antarctica have led to climatic changes both in the
stratosphere and at the Earth‘s surface
...
This, in turn, has resulted in a surface cooling in Antarctica and a
warming at high latitudes outside the Antarctic continent
...

These are responsible for large scale redistributions of atmospheric mass, which produce large
scale variability in Northern Hemisphere(NH) dynamics, and have a profound effect on winter
climate variability around the Atlantic basin
...

A potentially important impact of changing ozone on climate has been proposed recently to
explain the strengthening of the NAO in recent decades
...
Although weak
NAO trends are reproduced in climate simulations of the 20th century, the unexplained
strengthening of the NAO was fully simulated in a climate model by imposing observed ozone
trends in the lower stratosphere
...


Increases in solar ultra violet radiation as a result of ozone depletion could also affect terrestrial
and aquatic biogeochemical cycles, thereby altering both sources and removal sinks of
greenhouse gases, for example carbon dioxide, and possibly other trace gases including manmade pollutants
...

Whilst increases of ultraviolet may affect the production and removal of carbon dioxide, the
main greenhouse gas, ozone depletion itself can influence the global climate
...
If stratospheric ozone is
destroyed, ozone‘s contribution to the greenhouse effect is reduced
...

Ironically, as the ozone layer gradually repairs itself during the 21st century, this cooling
potential will be lost
...

Ozone Depletion and Wildlife
As we have already discussed before, the effects of global warming is not only limited to human
health and climate change
...
The effects on wildlife
vary depending on the type of the wildlife species
...
This is because of the
ultraviolet radiation from the sun as we have explained in the case of human health in our earlier
discussion
...
This effect would be even more severe to those species
which cannot withstand the ultraviolet radiation
...


Activity 8
...
What is stratospheric ozone depletion? State the seriousness of
this problem
2
...
State the harmful effects of ozone depletion on the following:
a
...
Crop yields
c
...
Plankton productivity
e
...
5 Global Initiatives to Conserve the Ozone Layer and Reduce Global Warming
Ozone depletion and global warming are serious environmental issues threatening the world
today
...
In this section we are going to look at some of the
international initiatives that are being put in place to address these issues
...
5
...
In
1992 a total 106 nations converged in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and approved a United Nation
Convention Framework Convention on Climate Change
...


In addition under this convention, developed countries committed themselves to reducing the
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000
...
Therefore
many countries did not achieve this goal
...
5
...
The UNFCCC is an
international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving stabilization of greenhouse gas
concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic
interference with the climate system
...
As of November 2009, 187 states had signed and ratified the protocol
...
Annex I countries
agreed to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 5
...
Annex
1 countries include countries like Australia, Canada, Japan, U
...
A, Norway, Russia and others
...

According to the treaty, in 2012, Annex I countries must have fulfilled their obligations of
reduction of greenhouse gases emissions established for the first commitment period (2008–
2012)
The five principal concepts of the Kyoto Protocol were:


Commitments to reduce greenhouse gases that are legally binding for annex I countries,
as well as general commitments for all member countries;



Implementation to meet the Protocol objectives, to prepare policies and measures which
reduce greenhouse gases; increasing absorption of these gases (for example through
geosequestration and biosequestration) and use all mechanisms available, such as joint
implementation, clean development mechanism and emissions trading; being rewarded
with credits which allow more greenhouse gas emissions at home;



Minimizing impacts on developing countries by establishing an adaptation fund for
climate change;



Accounting, reporting and review to ensure the integrity of the Protocol;



Compliance by establishing a compliance committee to enforce commitment to the
Protocol
...
The other good news is that in 2001 the Kyoto treaty was amended to
allow developed countries to help meet their greenhouse gas emission targets by buying and
selling credits
...
5
...
The function of the centre is to carry out research and
provide information on the consequences of climate change so that necessary actions can be
taken
...
5
...
It was agreed upon at the Vienna Conference of 1985 and entered into force in 1988
...

The Convention also established a mechanism for international cooperation in research,
monitoring, and exchange of data on the state of the stratospheric ozone layer and on emissions
and concentrations of CFCs and other relevant chemicals
...

Although the Vienna conference acted as a framework for the international efforts to protect the
ozone layer, it did not include legally binding reduction goals for the use of CFCs, the main
chemical agents causing ozone depletion
...

8
...
5 Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer (a protocol to the Vienna
Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer) is an international treaty designed to protect
the ozone layer by phasing out the production of a number of substances believed to be
responsible for ozone depletion
...
Since
then, it has undergone seven revisions, in 1990 (London), 1991 (Nairobi), 1992 (Copenhagen),

1993 (Bangkok), 1995 (Vienna), 1997 (Montreal), and 1999 (Beijing)
...
Due to its
widespread adoption and implementation it has been hailed as an example of exceptional
international co-operation with Kofi Annan quoted as saying that "perhaps the single most
successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol‖
...

The treaty is structured around several groups of halogenated hydrocarbons that have been
shown to play a role in ozone depletion
...
For each
group, the treaty provides a timetable on which the production of those substances must be
phased out and eventually eliminated
...
5
...
1 Impact of Montreal Protocol
Since the Montreal Protocol came into effect, the atmospheric concentrations of the most
important chlorofluorocarbons and related chlorinated hydrocarbons have either leveled off or
decreased
...
Also, the concentration of the HCFCs increased
drastically at least partly because for many uses CFCs (e
...
used as solvents or refrigerating
agents) were substituted with HCFCs
...
g
...
In consequence, the Montreal Protocol has often been
called the most successful international environmental agreement to date
...
However in 2003 the ozone hole grew to its second largest
size
...
"

Unfortunately, the hydrochlorofluorocarbons, or HCFCs, and hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, are
now thought to contribute to anthropogenic global warming
...
The
Montreal Protocol currently calls for a complete phase-out of HCFCs by 2030, but does not place
any restriction on HFCs
...

8
...
We stated that global
warming is the observed and projected increases in the average
temperature of earth‘s atmosphere and oceans that arises as a result of the
increasing use of fossil fuels, deforestation and the use of inorganic
fertilizers
...
In this respect in
1988 an intergovernmental panel on climate change was established and
given the mandate to study the science and the impacts of climate change
and to recommend possible policy responses
...
Greenhouse effect occurs when heat energy is
reflected back by the atmosphere
...

Further we noted that there is considerable evidence that global warming
is presently occurring as shown by signs like extreme weather events,
extinction of species, the increase of carbon dioxide concentration in the

in the troposphere and the melting of polar ice caps and glaciers
...

The second part of this lecture dealt with the stratospheric ozone layer
...
If
not prevented, this could have serious consequences including genetic
damages, eye damage and damage to marine life
...

In the last part of this lecture we dealt with the initiatives at global level
aimed at conserving ozone layer and also reduce global warming
...
In addition in the same
meeting the developed countries committed themselves to reduce carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000
...
Under the protocol industrialized countries committed
themselves to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 5
...


The United Nations through UNEP in collaboration with the government
of Switzerland have established a climate information centre to carry out
research on climate change as a way of increasing global awareness of
the dangers of climate change
...

8
...
Muthoka G
...

2
...
, Nairobi, Kenya
...
Miller T(2005) Living in the Environment, Thomsons Learning Inc
...
S
...
UNEP, Environmental effects of ozone depletion and its interactions
with climate change: 2003 progress report, United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi,
2003
...
UNEP, Environmental effects of ozone depletion and its interactions
with climate change: 2003 progress report, United
Nations Environment

Programme (UNEP), Nairobi,

2003
...
Keppler F
...
(2006) Methane emissions from terrestrial plants

under aerobic conditions
...
"Estimation of Emissions of Carbon Dioxide at the local level: A Low
cost approach for local authorities
...


Atmospheric Research and

http://doc
...
ac
...
html#pos6

(March 8, 1998)
6
...
"

Envirolink
...
envirolink
...
html (March 8, 1998)
7
...
"

United States Environmental Protection

Agency
...
epa
...
"The Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change
...
S
...
state
...
html
(March 9, 1998)

LECTURE NINE
MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESORUCES
Lecture Outline
9
...
2 Objectives
9
...
3
...
3
...
4 Principals of Conserving Natural Resources
9
...
5
...
6 Policies of Resource Management and Conservation
9
...
8 Summary
9
...
1

Introduction
Conservation is the process of rational use and management and preservation of the
natural environment with al its resources
...

In lecture eight we discussed in details the environmental impact associated with climate
change and ozone loss
...

In this lecture we will now examine the ways of managing and conserving the natural
resources
...


9
...


Explain the meaning of natural resources
...


Classify various natural resources
...


State the principles of conserving natural resources
...


Discuss the management principles for environmental
resource utilization and sustainability
...


Outline

policies

for

resource

management

and

conservation
...


Discuss the strategies of sustainable resource utilization
...
3 Definition and Meaning of Natural Resources
The natural environment is a complex system consisting of unrelated systems and working together in
regular relation
...
These materials created as a result of the interaction are called natural resources
...

F
...
Dastranu (1984) defined resources as things or sources of energy
...
According to Isaac W
...
‖ Therefore we can say that natural resources are any form of matter, materials or energy that
are valuable, useful or essential to human beings
...
Plants and animal resources
are formed as a result of biological activities of reproduction and growth, while coal and petroleum are
formed as a result of interaction of biological and physical processes over a long period of time
...


Take Note
It is important to consider possible environmental effects before
obtaining and using any material as a natural resource
...
Some areas are much more endowed with resources than others
...
S
...
, South Africa and Canada
...
However, there are some countries
particularly in the third world who have potential resources but have not been exploited due to resources
ranging from lack of the required scientific and technological know how to lack of finances
...
In addition some of the resources are very rare,
and once they are lost, they also disappear with secrets that might hold the key to future human needs for
food, medicinal and research potentials
...
Water
About 70-73% of earth is covered by water
...
The main
component of hydrosphere is water
...
e
...

We all know that life on earth began in the sea
...
Water consists of two atoms of hydrogen and
one atom of oxygen and it is the universal solvent since it dissolves most of the compounds
...


Water is a valuable natural asset as it is the fundamental natural resource
...
Water available in nature is of two types:
Salt water which is present more in nature because it constitutes the oceans and the seas and
fresh water, which is unlimited natural resources
...
The sources of fresh water are rainwater, surface water (surface flow)
and ground water
...
Air
It is an inexhaustible natural resource
...
In atmosphere, about 95% of the total air is present upto a height of 20 km
above the earth's surface
...
Air
is a mixture of different gases; nitrogen and oxygen are the major components
...

Atmosphere
A thick gaseous envelope surrounding the earth is called atmosphere
...

The atmosphere is divided into five different layers or zones:


Troposphere



Stratosphere



Mesosphere



Ionosphere



Exosphere

Composition of atmospheric air
Gas

Relative %age Volume

Nitrogen (N2)

78
...
93

Argon (A)

00
...
032

Miscellaneous

0
...
000

Oxygen is present in the first zone, 10 to 12 km from the surface of the earth
...
Therefore, at higher altitudes, some of us find it difficult to breathe
...
This zone is rich in ozone
...

In ozonosphere, the sunlight converts oxygen to ozone by photochemical dissolution
...
from the sun
...
It protects us from the bad effects of ultraviolet rays of sunlight
...
Air is also necessary to grow crops, support animal life and also is a
medium of communication
...
oxygen, nitrogen, CO2 etc
...

Air temperature in troposphere decreases with height at the rate of about
6150C per km
...
Aeroplanes usually fly in
this zone
...
Soil
The word soil is derived from a Latin word solum meaning ground
...

Inorganic component of soil i
...
mineral constituents are derived from the soil forming rocks, by
fragmentation or weathering
...




Biological weathering of rocks - This is due to growth of lichens and mosses on the
rocks
...
Thus the formation of soil takes place by interaction
between the physical and biological components
...

Components of Soil


Inorganic material derived from parent (material) rocks



Organic material derived from dead and decayed materials



Biological system - such as bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa and other soil animals such as
nematodes, earthworms etc
...
They are:


Alluvial soil - rich in loam and clay



Black soil - mostly made of clay



Red soil - sandy to loam



Mountain soil - stony, sandy soil



Desert soil - sandy and poor in organic carbon



Laterite soil - porous clay, rich in iron and aluminium hydroxides

Fertility of the soil is nothing but ability to nourish the plant life with required nutrients
...
Another cause of
reduction of fertility of soil is soil erosion
...
Soil fertility can be
prolonged both by the human efforts (application of manures, bio-fertilizers, chemical fertilizers
to soil of crop fields etc
...

4
...
These
minerals are very useful in industrial and technological growth
...
g
...
Some of the non-metallic materials
(minerals) are vital to industrial growth such as sand, fluxes, clay, salt, sulphur, phosphorus,
diamonds, gems, coal and by-products of petroleum (petrol, kerosene, lubricants)
...
Mineral deposits are formed slowly over millions of
years and once used, cannot be regenerated
...
For example,
petroleum products also called fossil fuels are widely used in agriculture, transportation and
industry
...
They are used in
the field of medicine and surgery, space technology, agriculture and its allied fields, buildings,
transportation and in national defence
...
, are used
...
3
...
However, it should be noted that some natural
resources can fall into one or more classes depending upon the way they are classified
...


Organic and inorganic

2
...


Renewable and non renewable

4
...


Potential and Actual

6
...


Common resources and shared resources

Let us have a brief look at each of them:
1
...
e plants and animals that are
found on the earth and in the sea
...

Inorganic resources are usually non-living substances directly or as raw materials for the production of
other necessary goods
...
Based on this classification, soil belongs to both the inorganic and organic class
because it is composed of materials which are both organic and inorganic
...
Inexhaustible and Exhaustible Resources
This classification is based on the level of abundance
...
They continue to be available whenever they are needed
...
Exhaustible
resources on the other hand include all the materials which are directly dependent on the activities of
human for their continued availability
...
You should also note that
although quantities and qualities of inexhaustible resources are independent of human actions, some
activities could interfere with them
...

3
...
They
include all living things that have the ability to reproduce and grow
...
However if there is
improper management of renewable resources such as over use, wastage or misuse, then it could lead to
the extinction of such resources
...
Non-

renewable resources on the other hand are irreplaceable
...
Examples include oil, coal, peat and natural gas
...
Biotic and Abiotic Resources
This classification of resources is based on the origin or the sources where the resources are found
...
Examples include all the living
organisms (plants and animals) and fossil fuels such as coal, peat and petroleum (formed from dead and
decaying matter)
...
Examples are water, land
and mineral ores of copper, aluminum, gold and silver
...
Potential and Actual Resources
Potential and actual resources are classified according to the stage of development in which they are
discovered
...
For
example, petroleum may exist in many parts of a country but until the time it is actually drilled out and
put into use, it remains a potential resource
...

6
...

Once used they can be repossessed and then re-used again and again
...
For
example the non Jua Kali industry in Kenya which depend on the used materials to process them
to manufacture useful products such as hoes, cooking pans and metals
...
They help preserve and
maintain the natural resources in the environment for a long time
...
Another
advantage of recycling water materials is that it helps in reducing the amount of waster which
would otherwise accumulate and cause environmental hazards
...
In other words they cannot be used again and they do not have
any salvage value
...

7
...
They are
available beyond any national and international boundaries
...
Examples of common resources are oceans outer space air and solar energy
...

Shared resources on the other hand belong to more than one nation
...
For proper use and conservation of shared resources there is need for the
nations concerned to have good co-operation between themselves and educate their nationals on
the impending danger of resource depletion
...
1
1
...
For each of the above resources identified discuss the practical
conservation measures that are being taken to safeguard them against the
possible dangers of depletion and extinctions
...
3
...
It should be mentioned here that these challenges vary fron one country to
another depending on the nature of available natural resources, technological ability,
infrastructure among other things
...

a) Lack of updated data on available resources

It is important that or any country to maximize on the national resources, a proper
knowledge of the available resources and changes affecting such resources must be
known
...

Some countries like Kenya have not done comprehensive exploration, mopping and
documentation of their natural resources so that the country can full be aware of the
resource potential
...

For example in the agricultural section, farmers continue to apply absolute technology in
irrigation schemes in which the utilization f water is inefficient and wasteful
...


Thus to ensure sustainable utilization and

management of natural resources, there is need for adequate technical and financial
assistance which can contribute towards the overall goal of protection and conservation
of the resources
...

Therefore there is need to develop effective laws that govern the use of management of
natural resources
...
For example in Kenya while there

are laws governing the exploitation of forestry and fishery resources, yet the problem has
been lack of enforcement
...

(d) Lack of infrastructural facilities
Another problem affecting proper use of natural resources is inadequate infrastructural
amenities
...

Infrastructural facilities improve not only improve accessibility to natural resources but
also help in reducing marketing or distribution costs and also help in diversification of
resources use
...
In some Third World countries and even in the developed nations,
political reasons have made it impossible to use or manage the natural resources available
in these nations
...

(f) Natural population growth
Over the year the population of most developing countries has been increasing steadily
while the natural resources available have remained the same
...

For example forestry resources are being threatened by deforestation to create room for
agricultural land
...

(g) Cultural beliefs and values

Some cultural beliefs and values can act as a hindrance to sustainable resources
utilization
...
4 Principles of Conserving Natural Resources
Before we look at principles governing conservation of natural resources can you remind
yourself the problems associated with resource utilization
...

An important question arises as to who is responsible for conservation of natural resources
...
Everybody be it an individual, an organization or even a
business enterprise must be involved in the process at one level or another
...

Another issue which is normally associated with resource use and conservation is the rise of
conflicts because of the competing interests of the stake holders
...
While there are no universal
principles of conserving natural resources, the following principles can be taken as ideal for
conservation:
1
...
In other words conservation means the use of natural
resources now existing for the benefit of the society
...


2
...

Efficient programmes to conserve natural resources should be encouraged to as they will
make the available natural resources to be sustained for larger periods
...
Similarly left over from hotels and
other institutions can be used as feeds for pigs or even sawdust can be a useful source of
energy for rural homes
...
Conservation should be for the benefit of the entire society
Good natural resource conservation programme should develop and preserve the
resources for the benefit of the many and not just for a few
...
It
often leads to xxx, protests and even war
...

4
...


For example the re-forestation

programme which can be used to help in replacing the used wood
...
Forecasting and planning
A good conservation programme should forecast and plan in advance the levels of
resources that are required and lay down the strategies of achieving the same
...

6
...
Awareness
creation also helps in soliciting individual support for conservation programmes
...
2
1
...

2
...
Suggest five principles which Kenya Wildlife Services can sue to
conserve its wildlife resources
...
5 The Management Process for Resources Utilization
In general terms management process involves planning, organizing, leading, controlling, making decisions , problems solving, communicating reporting
...

Planning in environmental management refers to proposing economically efficient and
environmentally friendly means of realizing goods
...

Organizing for resource utilization involves determining what programmes, projects and
activities to one to be performed
...
Organizing also involves dividing
the work to be done in such a manner that it can be done easily
...
Perhaps leadership is the most
important aspect in resource management
...
They can be lead in activities like tree
planting, shelter making, toilet construction etc
...

Controlling will involve delegating responsibility, designing patterns of work, guidance and
consulting, on job training and disciplining
...

In essence the objectives of an environmental manager is to promote the concept of sustainable
development so as to meet the present need as well as for the future needs of the resources
without compromising on the quantity and quality
...
5
...

It is used to help on appraising or assessing the projects proposal and policies that have direct
impact on the environment and its resources
...
B
...
is typically to evaluate the
desirability of a given intervention
...
12
...

1
...


3

Definition of objectives

Consideration of opinions

Specification

of


...


5
...


Decision

Source: Adopted from Muthoka et’l (2005)
Cost benefit analysis can be used as a tool to analyze both economic and ecological gains or
impacts
...
Examples include gravity, attitudes and even values of people
...
3
1
...
State their advantages and disadvantages
...
6 Strategies for Sustainable Resource Utilization
The world we are living is undergoing changes day and night that require interaction to sustain
the diminishing natural resources
...

The need to sustain resource utilization cannot be overemphasized
...
For example there has been a long list of hazards and disaster
including soil erosion, desertification, loss of cropland, pollution, deforestation, extinction of
species and varieties just to mention a few
...

In this section we are going to look at various strategies initiated at the international and national
levels by various organizations and governments to conserve the natural resources
...

The aim of the world conservation strategy is to help advance the achievement of sustainable
development through the conservation of living resources
...
C
...
work with the following
groups of people who are regarded as key in conservation of natural resources: government
policy makers and their advisers; conservationists and other directly concerned with the living
resources; and development practitioners including aid agencies, industry and commerce and
trade unions
...
The first one is to

maintain essential ecological processes and life-support systems
...

The second objective is to preserve genetic diversity which support: life support systems; the
breeding programmes necessary for the protection and improvement of cult rated plants,
domesticated animals; technical innovation; and the security the many industries that use living
resources; finally the world conservation strategy has the third objective of ensuring sustainable
utilization of species and ecosystems notably fish and other world-life, forests and grazing lands
which support millions of rural communities as well as major industries
...

The convention was set up with the objective of promoting cooperation by means of systematic
observations, research and information exchange on the effects of adopt legistrative on
administrative measures against activities likely to have advice effects on the ozone layer
...

CITES was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN
(The world conservation Union), and later came into force in 1975 after the text of the
convention was finally agreed on at a meeting of representatives in United States of America in
1973
...
After
joining they are known as parties
...

However they do not take the place of national laws
...

9
...
We gave
examples of natural resources as air, water, rocks fossils etc and

noted that some natural resources exist through natural processes
while others are made by applying scientific and technical knowhow
...

In the subsequent section of this lecture discussed the
classification of natural resources
...
That based on the characteristics of natural
resources, they can be classified as organic and inorganic;
inexhaustible and exhaustible; renewable and non-renewable;
biotic and abiotic; potential and actual; recyclable and nonrecyclable and lastly common and shared resources
...
These challenges varies from one country to
another depending on the type of the available natural resources,
technological ability and infrastructure available
...
Good principles of
conserving natural resources should ensure the welfare of the
environment as well as the people living within that
environment
...
Before ending
the lecture we briefly talked about cost benefit analysis which
we said a tool used to appraise or assess the project‘s proposal
and policies that have direct impact on the environment and its
resources
...
We noted that among the strategies
being put in place to sustain to sustain resource utilization
include the activities of world conservation strategy, the Vienna
convention and the convention on international trade in
endangered species
...
Dasmann, R
...
, John Willy and Sons, New York, U
...
A
2
...
, 1986, Environmental Conservation,
John Willy and Sons, New York, U
...
A
...
IUCN/UNEP/WWWF,

1980
...

4
...
A
Framework
Switzerland

for

Sustainable

Development,



---